THE 

SPIDER'S.WEB 


REGINALD  WRIGHT  KAUFFMAN 


BERKELEY    \ 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY   OP 
CALIFORNIA 


THE  SPIDER'S   WEB 


BOOKS  BY   THE   SAME   AUTHOR 

THE  HOUSE  OF  BONDAGE 
THE  GIRL  THAT  GOES  WRONG 
THE  SENTENCE  OF  SILENCE 
THE  WAY  OF  PEACE 
WHAT  IS  SOCIALISM? 
RUNNING  SANDS 

THE  THINGS  THAT  ARE  CESAR'S 
ETC.,  ETC. 


I'.KTTY    STOOD   AT   THE    WINDOW    IN    THE   FULL  LIGHT   OF   Till 
STREET-LAMP 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 


BY 

REGINALD  WRIGHT  KAUFFMAN 

Author  of  "  The  House  or  Bondage,"  etc.,  etc. 


Illustrated  by 
JEAN  PALEOLOGUE 


NEW  YORK 

THE  MACAULAY  COMPANY 
1914 


That's  the  shout,  the  shout  we  shall  utter 

When,  with  rifles  and  spades, 
We  stand,  with  the  old  Red  Flag  aflutter 

On  the  barricades! 

— FRANCIS  ADAMS. 

Thou  orb  of  many  orbs! 

Thou   seething   principle!      Thou   well-kept,    latent   germ! 

Thou  center! 

Around  the  idea  of  thee  the  strange  sad  war  revolving, 
With  all  its  angry  and  vehement  play  of  causes, 
(With  yet  unknown  results  to  come,  for  thrice  a  thousand 

years).   .    .    . 

— WHITMAN. 

While  three   men   hold   together, 
The  kingdoms  are  less  by  three. 

— SWINBURNE. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

"  Betty, "   he  said,    "do  you  understand  what  your 
father  is  asking  me  to  do  ? ' '  .         ( Outside  ™ 

PAGE 

Betty  stood  at  the  window  in  the  full  light  of  the  street- 
lamp  Frontispiece 

The  girl  nodded  comprehendingly      ....     192 

The   mob  was  using  the  coal   from   the    dismantled 

wagon 380 


EXPLANATION 

IN  order  to  warn  off  trespassers,  I  have  begun  my 
novel  with  four  chapters  that  an  expert  book 
maker — indeed,  my  own  book-maker — has  pro 
nounced  dull:  I  knew  that  only  those  to  whom  the 
book  belonged  would  persevere.  By  the  same  token, 
being  aware  that  the  story  which  is  prefaced  by  an 
apology  is  ended  with  suspicion,  I  preface  this  story 
with  an  apology:  I  want  to  apologize  to  my  friends 
for  using  them  and  to  my  enemies  for  not  giving  them 
what  they  have  expected;  I  want  to  create  in  the 
minds  of  the  former  the  suspicion  that  I  am  darker 
than  I  have  been  painted,  and  in  the  minds  of  the 
latter  the  suspicion  that  I  am  not  a  whited  sepulcher 
but  a  blackened  altar. 

In  1909  I  projected,  vaguely  it  is  true,  a  cycle 
of  four  novels,  each  to  be  independent  of  the  others 
in  plot  and  character,  but  all  carrying  forward  a  defi 
nite  view  of  life.  As,  however,  the  announcement  of 
a  cycle  is  the  surest  means  of  alienating  readers,  not 
to  mention  publishers,  I  held  my  tongue  about  the 
general  plan  and  concerned  myself,  in  public,  only 
with  its  separate  parts.  These  were  "  The  House  of 
Bondage,"  "  The  Sentence  of  Silence,"  "  Running 
Sands  "  and  "  The  Spider's  Web." 

Privately,  the  first  question  demanding  answer  was 
that  of  method.  In  what  I  had  to  say  I  believed 
burningly,  as  I  still  believe  deeply,  and  the  great 
thing  with  me  was  not  to  say  it  in  the  manner  that 
most  people  would  call  Art,  but  to  say  it  in  the  man 
ner  that  would  convert  as  many  readers  as  possible 

vii 


vlii  EXPLANATION 

to  my  way  of  thinking.  I  did  not  want  to  produce 
the  effect  of  a  work  of  Art;  I  wanted  to  produce  con 
viction  of  truth.  On  the  one  hand,  I  must  avoid 
even  the  appearance  of  a  personal  interest  in  my 
characters,  because  that  would  divert  my  readers 
into  the  charge  of  sentimentality;  and  on  the  other, 
I  must  not  hesitate  to  marshal  my  events  in  their 
largest  force,  even  though  the  reviewers  called  this 
melodrama. 

Here  is  a  choice  that  is  sure  to  come  sooner  or 
later  to  every  writer  of  fiction:  the  choice  between 
what  he  has  considered  Art  for  Art's  sake  and  what 
he  considers  art  for  Man's  sake.  He  has  kept  in 
mind  the' day  when  his  books  will  be  judged  solely  by 
their  own  merits,  when  the  causes  with  which  he  sym 
pathizes  have  been  defeated  and  forgotten  or  estab 
lished  and  beyond  the  need  of  sympathy;  when  new 
evils  demand  new  remedies  and  old  wounds  are 
healed.  He  knows,  as  few  of  his  contemporary  read 
ers  can  know,  that  then  he  will  be  heavily  handicapped 
by  all  that  is  immediate  or  local  in  what  he  writes; 
that  by  nothing  save  adherence  to  the  eternal  stand 
ards  of  Art  can  he  endure.  He  may  be  certain,  in  his 
own  mind,  that  any  true  art  is  the  expression,  in  the 
manner  best  calculated  to  secure  a  desired  effect,  of 
the  ideas  essential  to  the  effect,  but  he  will  be  equally 
sure  that  the  world  will  not  so  consider.  If  he  sets 
any  propaganda  above  Art,  the  future  will  forget  his 
work,  the  present  meet  it  with  prejudice,  probably 
with  opposition;  and  against  all  this  he  has  to  set 
only  his  own  faith  in  the  righteousness  of  the  thing 
he  has  to  say. 

I  made  my  choice  and  began  my  cycle  with  that 
one  of  my  four  novels  which  I  knew  would  receive 
the  readiest  hearing.  In  "  The  House  of  Bondage  " 
I  wanted  to  put  before  my  readers  the  theory  that 
the  superimposing  of  one  human  being's  will,  or  the 


EXPLANATION  ix 

will  of  any  group  of  human  beings,  upon  any  other's 
is  the  Great  Crime.  For  the  purposes  of  illustration, 
I  chose  for  attack  the  chief  present  means  of  such 
imposition  or  compulsion,  the  pressure  of  our  eco 
nomic  system,  and  depicted  its  effects  in  forcing 
women  into  prostitution.  The  result  was  amazing: 
the  book  sold  and,  they  tell  me,  is  still  selling  in  my 
own  and  several  other  countries  and  tongues;  it  either 
originated  or  promoted  a  series  of  sociological  cru 
sades  and  legislative  investigations  concerning  them 
selves  with  the  symptoms  and  neglecting  the  disease, 
and  by  no  persons  was  it  so  heartily  welcomed  as  by 
those  who  are  themselves  the  instruments  of  compul 
sion.  I  began  to  think  that  the  instruments  were  be 
coming  conscious  and  that  I  might  not  be  so  unpopu 
lar  after  all. 

I  was  never  more  mistaken.  In  "  The  Sentence  of 
Silence  "  I  proceeded  to  show  other  effects  of  the 
same  evil  compulsion:  the  effects  of  pur  failure  to 
instruct  our  children  in  sex-hygiene ;  of  imposing  upon 
our  heirs  the  moral  code  that  our  economic  system  has 
imposed  upon  us,  and  of  imposing  upon  our  daugh 
ters  an  abstinence  from  which  we  absolve  our  sons. 
In  its  circulation,  this  book  left  its  publishers  nothing 
to  complain  of;  but  its  reception  was  of  a  sort  vastly 
different  from  that  of  its  predecessor.  Parents  that 
were  loath  to  see  other  people's  daughters  forced  into 
prostitution  were  shocked  at  a  proposal  to  educate 
their  own  sons  against  the  practice  of  seduction;  hus 
bands  that  lived  in  secret  polygamy  were  aghast  at 
the  idea  of  instructing  their  wives  in  any  code  save 
that  which  they  preached,  but  did  not  follow;  and 
men  that  took  any  woman's  body  they  could  get  were 
horrified  at  the  notion  of  any  woman  sharing  their 
liberty. 

The  remarkable  book-reviewer  of  the  generally 
sane  Philadelphia  "  Inquirer "  upbraided  me  be- 


x  EXPLANATION 

cause,  after  I  had  dragged  my  central  character, 
Dan  Barnes,  through  the  sewers  of  debauchery  and 
venereal  disease,  I  did  not  "  save  "  him  by  marrying 
him  to  a  "  pure  "  woman! 

Came  the  third  novel,  "  Running  Sands/'  and  came 
a  louder  protest.  I  had  here  tried  to  take  a  step 
further  my  argument  against  compulsion  and  to  show 
that,  if  I  had  been  right  before,  then  compulsion  by 
matrimony — the  marriage  of  the  old  to  the  young 
and  the  knowing  to  the  ignorant,  rape  within  wed 
lock  and  forcing  of  wives  to  become  mothers  against 
their  will — was  wrong.  Here  again  the  people  read 
and  the  instruments  of  compulsion  condemned  me. 
Those  persons  who,  without  a  wry  face  among  them, 
swallow  the  funny  but  futile  jokes  of  another  type  of 
fiction  were  so  whole-hearted  in  their  curses  of  my 
book  that  I  was  inclined  to  believe  their  present  bitter 
ness  enhanced  by  their  recollection  of  how  they  had 
once  praised  me. 

Now  I  have  written  "  The  Spider's  Web,"  the  last 
of  my  four,  and  I  have  read  that  it  is  expected  to  be 
to  its  predecessors  what  Landor  said  the  fourth 
George  was  to  his.  For  a  good  pair  of  eyes  at  the 
conventional  point  of  view,  it  is  all  this  and  more; 
but  then  there  are  no  good  eyes  at  the  conventional 
point  of  view,  and  so  I  fear  that,  without  help,  the 
condemners  of  "  The  Sentence  of  Silence "  and 
u  Running  Sands  "  may  find  this  novel  innocent:  there 
is  only  one  "  bad  "  woman  among  its  speaking-roles, 
and  she  appears  but  three  brief  times.  In  order  that 
my  condemners  may  not  miss  what  they  want  to  find 
in  me,  I  shall  tell  them  in  a  simpler  form  than  the 
dramatic  what  I  have  done. 

I  have  made  Luke  Huber  a  man  that  comes  to  see 
the  sin  of  compulsion  exerting  itself  against  humanity 
in  all  the  powers  that  conduct  modern  society;  in  the 
ownership  of  men  and  things;  in  our  entire  system  of 


EXPLANATION  xi 

production  and  distribution,  and  in  the  creatures  and 
ministers  of  that  system :  Government,  Politics,  Law, 
and  what  passes  by  the  name  of  Religion. 

Such  a  mind  as  Huber's  comes  to  Dora  Marsden's 
conclusion:  "  Life  is  no  two  days  the  same:  the  same 
measure  never  fits  twice  exactly;  hence  the  futility  of 
state-making,  law-making,  moral-making,  when  all 
that  is  of  importance  is  life-augmenting,  and  that  is 
the  individual's  affair."  He  sees  that  only  Labor 
creates  wealth,  and  that  nothing  should  be  robbed  of 
a  fraction  of  what  it  creates.  He  sees  that  actually 
government  is  "  not  the  president,  congress  and  the 
courts,  not  any  body  or  power  created  by  the  Consti 
tution,  but  always  a  combination  of  important  busi 
ness  interests,"  *  not  even  any  individual,  and  that 
even  if  it  were  completely  constitutional  it  would  still 
be  compulsion — that  to  "  consent  "  to  be  governed  is 
to  consent  to  be  compelled. 

He  would  argue  of  politics: 

"  We  Americans  pretend  to  hate  kings,  and  so  we 
devise  a  republic;  finding  the  rule  of  one  man  bad, 
we  believe  we  can  better  it  by  multiplying  it  by  ninety 
millions;  finding  an  ounce  has  evil  effects,  we  take  a 
ton.  We  simply  change  the  tyranny  of  one  for  the 
tyranny  of  many.  Even  if  the  will  of  our  fifteen 
million  voters  ruled  us  as  they  tell  us  it  does,  then 
each  one  of  the  fifteen  million  would  be  giving  all  the 
14,999,999  others  the  right  to  interfere  with  him 
in  return  for  his  one  fifteen-millionth  right  to  take  a 
hand  in  interfering  with  them.  For  that  fraction  of 
power  over  others,  he  would  be  giving  away  all  his 
power  over  himself." 

Huber  would  say  of  religion  and  law: 

"  Both  are  tools  in  the  hands  of  compulsion.  Both 
try  to  belittle  divine  humanity,  the  first  making  Man 
a  pygmy  before  God  and  the  second  making  Man  a 
*  Charles  Edward  Russell. 


xii  EXPLANATION 

pygmy  before  a  few  men.  There  can  be  no  crime 
against  God,  since  God,  or  the  force  that  created  the 
world,  is  omnipotent;  no  crime  against  law,  since  law 
is  an  instrument  of  the  great  crime.  The  law  a  deter 
rent?  It  isn't.  The  statistics  prove  that,  so  far  as 
statistics  can  prove  anything.  But  you  prove  it  your 
self.  Why  do  you  try  to  refrain  from  conscious 
wrong?  Not  because  you're  afraid  of  the  law  in 
heaven  or  on  earth — you're  not  a  coward.  You 
simply  want  to  do  the  decent  thing  because  it  is  the 
decent  thing.  The  desire  to  do  the  decent  thing: 
that's  all  the  religion  and  law  there  is  to-day  among 
even  the  people  that  make  laws  and  religions  for  the 
purpose  of  ruling  other  people  by  them.  The  rulers 
sin  only  because  their  system  has  dimmed  their  judg 
ment  of  the  decent  thing,  and  so  they  go  on  maintain 
ing  their  law  and  their  religion.  The  ruled  will 
want  to  do  the  decent  thing  just  as  soon  as  they  be 
come  responsible  creatures  through  the  abolition  of 
these  compulsions,  exactly  as  the  rulers,  though 
dulled  by  keeping  up  their  system,  wanted  to  do  it 
as  soon  as  they  became  responsible  creatures  by 
growing  above  the  dictates  of  these  compulsions." 

Other  men,  other  religions.  For  some  faith;  for 
some  denial.  Huber's  religion  was  the  Gospel  of 
Negation. 

He  came  to  this  by  conversion,  which  means  the 
sudden  revelation  by  the  sub-conscious  self  to  the 
conscious  self  of  the  meanings  that  the  sub-conscious 
self  has  long  been  drawing  from  the  conscious  self's 
experiences.  The  outward  phenomena  of  such  con 
versions — "  beinjr  saved,"  "  receiving  grace,"  "  be 
ing  regenerated,"  "  experiencing  religion  " — are  per 
fectly  familiar  to  all  persons  that  have  attended  evan 
gelical  churches,  know  the  work  of  the  Salvation 
Army,  or  have  read  Harold  Begbie's  "  Broken  Earth 
enware."  The  psychology  of  the  force  causing  them 


EXPLANATION  xiii 

has  been  elaborately,  but  not  always  scientifically, 
treated  in  William  James's  stimulating  volume, 
"  Some  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience."  The 
force  itself  can,  and  often  does,  change  the  entire  life 
of  a  man  from  evil  to  good.  The  men  so  changed 
that  we  most  hear  of  are  changed  by  an  affirmation  of 
faith,  because  they  are  men  whose  only  spiritual  ex 
perience  has  been  in  connection  with  accepted  religions 
and  because  their  change  is  generally  first  exhibited  in 
the  public  meeting-place  of  the  followers  of  some  such 
religion;  but  there  are  other  men  similarly  changed  by 
a  denial  of  faith,  because  they  have  had  spiritual  ex 
periences  distinct  from  any  accepted  religion,  and  of 
them  we  hear  little,  because  their  change  is  generally 
wrought  in  the  solitude  in  which  they  have  had  those 
spiritual  experiences  which  are  unconnected  with  ac 
cepted  religion. 

Huber  was  a  man  of  the  latter  sort.  Being  of  that 
sort,  he  says  the  last  word  that  follows  logically  from 
an  acceptance  of  "  The  House  of  Bondage." 

About  the  manner  of  this  last  word  I  should,  per 
haps,  say  something  more.  I  have  not,  I  confess  with 
shame,  read  M.  Fabre's  book  on  the  habits  of  the 
spider,  but  I  have  read  other  books  and  studied  the 
spider  in  my  own  garden;  and  the  more  I  learned  of 
web  and  spider  the  more  I  realize  how  Huber  would 
see  their  simulacra  in  our  civilization  and  learn  at 
last  that  there  the  web  outlived  many  spiders.  That 
is  how  I  got  my  title,  and  that  is  why  I  have  tried  to 
construct  my  chapters  with  a  certain  rough  resem 
blance  to  the  female  diadem-spider's  web.  At  the 
end,  both  the  web  and  Huber  win :  the  former  be 
cause  it  catches  its  fly  and  goes  on  catching  other  and 
larger  flies;  the  latter  because  his  soul  has  found  it 
self. 

The  method  of  procuring  data  requires  a  fuller 
explanation.  The  writer  who  endeavors  to  present 


xiv  EXPLANATION 

actual  conditions  in  fictional  form  has  constantly  to 
choose  between  truth  and  facts,  and  if  his  readers  ac 
cept  his  facts,  they  are  inclined  to  doubt  his  imagina 
tion.  In  all  of  these  four  books,  I  have  been  careful 
to  present  only  types,  but  I  have  tried  to  endow  each 
type  with  character,  and  each  character  has  assumed 
a  living  personality  in  my  own  mind.  I  have  used  no 
person  and  no  event  that  was  isolated;  but,  having  in 
dividualized  my  types  and  chosen  my  typical  events,  I 
have  felt  free  to  employ  the  latter  in  whatever  wvay 
seemed  to  me  best  fitted  to  enforce  my  argument, 
and  at  liberty  to  imagine  what  the  former  would 
think  and  do  under  the  stress  of  the  latter.  I  have 
heard  of  a  dozen  women  in  real  life  designated  as  the 
originals  of  Mary  Denbigh,  three  wives  selected  as 
Muriel  Stainton,  and  one  man — myself — named  as 
Dan  Barnes.  The  discoverers  of  these  prototypes 
only  flattered  my  powers  of  detection  and  portraiture 
at  the  expense  of  my  imagination  and  good  taste. 

I  intended  to  present,  and  I  have  presented,  sim 
ply  certain  types  produced  by  our  civilization  and 
working  in  the  media  of  our  economic  system.  I 
spent  considerable  time  in  New  York  last  winter  to 
procure  certain  data;  I  found  the  data,  selected  what 
was  typical  as  I  saw  it,  and  made  my  story.  "  The 
Spider's  Web,"  whether  well  done  or  ill,  has  been 
done  by  my  own  imagination. 

Help  I  have  had  and  eagerly  sought.  An  historian 
always  cites  his  authorities  and  acknowledges  his 
assistants;  I  could  never  see  why  a  novelist  should  be 
less  honest  or  less  courteous,  since  every  realist  must 
delegate  some  of  his  research-work,  and  even  the 
writer  of  that  fiction  farthest  from  life  must  take 
something  from  the  fancy  of  his  acquaintances.  I 
know,  and  I  shall  not  soon  forget,  how  much  u  The 
House  of  Bondage "  owes  to  the  encouragement 


EXPLANATION  xv 

given  my  work  by  its  publishers.  During  the  latter 
part  of  the  actual  writing  of  "  The  Spider's  Web," 
it  was  impossible  for  either  my  wife  or  me  to  be  in 
New  York,  and  I  taxed  the  generous  patience  of  many 
a  friend  by  inquiries.  I  exacted  tribute  from  Max 
Eastman's  editorials  in  "  The  Masses,"  Walter  Lipp- 
mann's  papers  in  "  The  Forum,"  and  C.  P.  Con 
nolly's  in  "  Everybody's  Magazine "  as  expressing 
three  current  phases  of  American  opinion;  I  even 
seized  a  picture  from  Mary  Macdonald  Brown's  ac 
counts  of  New  York  and  secured  from  an  editorial  in 
"  The  Nation  "  my  reference  to  the  past  of  the  Astor 
House.  Moliere  took  his  own  where  he  found  it;  I 
have  taken  other  men's  at  my  need.  To  all  of  these 
my  score  is  long;  to  those  few  and  fine  newspaper  and 
magazine  critics  and  reviewers  who  have  seen  my 
purpose  and  helped  it — who,  when  they  have  differed 
or  blamed,  blamed  or  differed  honestly — to  them, 
from  whom  I  have  learned  so  much,  my  obligation  is 
still  greater. 

No  opinions  that  are  worth  while  are  unalterable; 
only  the  insincere  have  fixed  convictions :  my  cycle  of 
four  books  expresses  an  attitude  toward  life  that  I 
may  some  day  very  well  change.  This  series  com 
pleted,  I  am  left  with  my  conscience  free  and  my 
brain  at  liberty  to  turn  toward  work  that  I  may  try 
to  design  only  by  the  more  lasting  standards  of  Art, 
but  no  change  of  belief  or  work  will  make  me  regret 
having  expressed  what  I  believed.  I  am  thoroughly 
aware  of  how,  if  they  understood  it,  the  condemners 
of  "  The  Sentence  of  Silence  "  and  "  Running  Sands  " 
would  condemn  this  book.  I  am  equally  aware  of 
how  many  persons  that  are  my  comrades,  friends,  and 
well-wishers  will  alter  their  relations  toward  me  when 
they  have  read  "The  Spider's  Web";  but,  though 
I  shall  be  sorry  to  lose  these,  I  shall  not  be  sorry  for 


xvi  EXPLANATION 

the  reason  of  their  loss.     Horace  Traubel,  who  puts 
most  things  well,  has  put  this  well: 

"  I  have  tried  to  stay  in  the  house  of  comfort,  to  sleep  in  my  bed 

of  ease, 
But  something  not  outside  of  me,  something  inside  of  me  says : 

This  will  not  do.  .  .  . 
I  have  tried  the  easy  way :  it  was  hard : 
Now  I  will  try  the  hard  way :  I  guess  it  will  be  easier/* 

REGINALD  WRIGHT  KAUFFMAN. 

POSCHIAVO,  SWITZERLAND, 
8th  September,  1913. 

X 


CHARACTERS 


A  MAN, 

the  head  of  a  group  of  men  virtually  controlling  industrial,  fi 
nancial,  and  political  America. 

GEORGE  J.  HALLETT,  one  of  his  associates. 

L.  BERGEN  RIVINGTON,  another. 


Politicians. 

THE  GOVERNOR  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK. 

THE  MAYOR  OF  NEW  YORK  CITY. 

HON.  G.  W.  HUBER,  U.  S.  Congressman,  from  Don- 

caster  County,  Pennsylvania. 
HON.  JESSE  KINZER,  his  successor. 

SENATOR  SCUDDER,  the   MAN'S  lieutenant  in  the 

Albany  legislature. 
HON.  JARED  SPARKS,  his  lieutenant  in  the  Connecti 

cut  legislature. 
BRINLEY,  commander    of    his    lobby    at 

Washington. 

KILGOUR,  City  Chamberlain  of  New  York. 

TIM  HENEY,  Leader  of  Tammany  Hall. 

SEELEY,  an    anti-Tammany   Democratic 

leader. 

ELLISON,  another. 

THE  POLICE-COMMISSIONER  OF  NEW  YORK  CITY. 
GEORGE  KAINDIAC,  a  U.  S.  Post-Office  Inspector. 


E,  } 
,'     ) 


,  leaders   of  the   Municipal  Re- 


YEATES,      )  form 

JARVIE,  a    Municipal    Reform    League 

"  worker." 


Lawyers. 

BROUWER  LEIGHTON,  District-Attorney       of       New 

York.     A  Republican. 

LARRY  O'MARA,  a  member  of  his  staff. 

UHLER,  another  member  of  Leighton's 

staff, 
xvii 


XV111 


CHARACTERS 


EX-JUDGE  MARCUS  F.  STEIN,of  the  firm  of  Stein,  Falcon- 
ridge,  Falconridge  &  Perry, 
corporation-lawyers. 

IRWIN,  a  member  of  Stein's  staff. 

ANSON  QUIRK,  an  underworld  lawyer. 

LUKE  HUBER,  a  young  lawyer. 


Businessmen. 


president  of  the  M.  &  N.  R.  R. 

his  successor. 

president  of  the  East   County 

National  Bank. 

head    of    the    firm    of    R.    H. 

Forbes  &   Son,   manufacturers 

of  ready-made  clothing. 

financial-inquiry   agent. 

•the  MAX'S  secretary. 

his  chief  broker. 

his  almoner. 

one  of  his  confidential  clerks. 

manager   of   the   Ruysdael   es 
tate. 

superintendent    of   the   Forbes 

factory. 

in    the    Arapahoe    Apartment- 
house. 

CHARLEY,  a  clerk  in  the  M.  R.  L.  offices. 

REV.  PINKNEY  NICHOLSON,  rector  of  Church  of  St.  Atha- 

nasius. 


ROBERT  M.  DOHAN, 

HENRY  G.  McKAY, 

B.  FRANK  OSSERMAN, 

WALLACE  K.  FORBES, 


ALEXANDER  TITUS, 
JAMES  T.  ROLLINS, 
ATWOOD, 
SIMPSON, 
COXOVER, 
HERBERT  CROY, 

WHITAKER, 

THE  DESK-CLERK, 


Miscellaneous  Persons. 


THE  MAN'S  NIECE. 
CORNELIUS  RUYSDAEL, 

MRS.  RUYSDAEL, 
TOMMY  HALLETT, 
JOHN  JAY  PORCELLIS, 
BETTY  FORBES, 
MRS.  HUBER, 

JANE  HUBER, 

JAMES, 

MISS  WESTON, 

BREIL, 

AN  I.W.W.  ORGANIZER. 


a    wealthy     New     Yorker     of 

good    family. 

his  wife. 

son  of  George  J. 

a  young  man  of  leisure. 

daughter  of  Wallace  K.  Forbes. 

mother  of   Luke  and  wife  of 

G.  W.  Huber. 

her  daughter. 

the  Forbes  chauffeur. 

a  telephone  operator. 

a  strike-breaker. 


CHARACTERS  xix 

Policemen. 

HUGH  DONOVAN,  a  police-lieutenant. 

MITCHELL,    ) 

ANDERSON,  V  patrolmen. 

GUTH,  ) 

Militiamen. 


CAPTAIN  ANTONIO  FACCIOLATI,  of  the  New  York  N.  G. 
TERRY,  first-lieutenant    under    Faccio- 

lati. 
SCHMIDT,  a  sergeant. 


Citizens  of  the  Underworld. 

A  BUM. 

GACE,  an  assassin. 

A  DISORDERLY  WOMAN. 

A  WOMAN-RIOTER. 

A  DRUNKEN  WOMAN. 

REDDY  RAWN,  leader  of  an  East  Side  "gang." 

REDDY'S  "  GIRL." 

THE  KID,  one  of  his  associates. 

CRAB  ROTELLO,  head  of  a  rival  gang. 

ZANTZINGER,  a  gunman. 

BUTCH  DELLITT,  another  gunman. 


Other  Persons. 

Women  of  the  street,  the  brothel,  the  world. 

Clothing-factory  workers. 

A  mob. 

Waiters  in  saloons. 

Clerks  and  foremen  in  the  Forbes  factory. 

Stenographers  and  typists. 

Gamblers. 

Other  gangmen. 

Other  policemen. 

Various  minor  Republican,  Democratic,  Reform,  and  Progressive 

politicians. 

Newspaper-reporters. 
Some  newspaper-editors. 
A  corps  of  strike-breakers. 
Scabs. 
Soldiers  of  the  New  York  National  Guard. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 


CHAPTER  I 

§  I .  Early  that  morning,  Luke  Huber  stood  before 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Station  at  Americus  and 
fancied  himself  a  latter-day  crusader  setting  out  to 
reconquer  from  the  infidels  the  modern  Holy  City  of 
God.  He  had  graduated  from  the  Harvard  Law- 
School  in  the  previous  June.  Now  the  Republican 
brother-in-law  of  one  of  his  classmates,  having  been 
elected  District-Attorney  of  corruptly  Democratic 
New  York,  offered  a  place  on  his  staff  to  Luke  as 
soon  as  Huber  should  meet  successfully  the  neces 
sary  formalities.  This  new  public-prosecutor  was  to 
"  clean  up  "  the  largest  city  in  the  country,  and  Luke, 
as  his  assistant,  was  to  aid  in  restoring  to  the  metropo 
lis  the  ideals  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution. 

A  slim  young  man,  with  a  smooth  face  too  rugged 
to  be  handsome,  and  gray  eyes  too  keen  to  be  always 
dreaming,  Huber  stood  erect,  the  wide  collar  of  his 
woolen  overcoat  turned  up,  for  the  spring  lingered 
that  year  in  the  valleys  of  Virginia,  and  the  brim  of 


2  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

his  Alpine  hat  pulled  over  his  nose.  He  disregarded 
the  group  of  boys  waiting  for  the  "  up-train  "  that 
would  bring  the  Philadelphia  morning  newspapers  to 
his  native  Pennsylvania  town,  disregarded  the  grimy 
station-buildings,  and  looked  toward  the  river,  where 
the  morning  mists  were  lifting  and  the  cold  sunshine 
was  creeping  through  to  light  the  Susquehanna  hills. 
He  was  one  of  those  fortunate  and  few  human 
beings  who  are  born  without  the  original  sin  of  super 
stition,  but  what  he  saw  seemed  to  him  almost  a 
favorable  omen.  He  had  come  down  early,  because 
he  disliked  to  prolong  the  good-bys  of  his  mother 
and  sister,  and  because  he  felt  that  even  the  walk  to 
the  station  was  an  important  advance  in  the  quest 
which  he  was  so  eager  to  begin.  When  he  arrived 
beside  the  railway  tracks  and  allowed  his  father,  the 
Congressman,  to  see  to  the  checking  of  the  baggage 
— a  concession  that  Luke  made  to  his  parent's  desire 
for  some  part  in  the  great  adventure — the  entire 
river  was  hidden  from  view  by  a  thick  dun  curtain : 
one  could  see  nothing  beyond  the  point  by  the  shore 
where  the  black  arms  of  a  derrick,  at  the  Americus 
Sand  Company's  works,  were  silhouetted  against  that 
curtain  and  stretched  over  a  tremendous  mound  of 
sand,  as  if  they  were  the  arms  of  some  gigantic  skele 
ton  pronouncing  the  benediction  at  a  Black  Mass. 
But  now,  though  the  fog  really  rose,  it  appeared 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  3 

to  Luke  to  be  torn  from  above,  and  as  the  sun 
mounted  over  distant  Turkey  Hill  and  gradually 
gilded  the  pines  on  the  surrounding  summits,  it 
seemed  to  advance  up  the  bed  of  the  stream,  slowly 
descending  of  its  own  force  along  the  dark  hillsides, 
until,  all  at  once,  the  river  was  a  rushing  stream  of 
gold.  Luke  found  himself  thinking  of  the  veil  of  the 
Temple,  and  how  it  was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to 
the  bottom. 

His  father,  who  was  taller  than  Luke,  but  broad 
out  of  all  proportion  to  his  height,  came  puffing  back 
from  the  baggage-room.  He  held  the  checks  for 
Luke's  luggage  and  a  slip  of  pink  paper. 

"  Here  are  your  checks,"  he  said,  "  and  here's  your 
pass.  I  forgot  to  give  it  to  you.  It  came  last  night." 

Luke  took  the  proffered  paper. 

"  I  thought,"  he  began,  "  that  the  Interstate  Com 
merce  Commission  didn't " 

The  Congressman  interrupted  with  a  deep  chuckle. 

"  Oh,  that's  all  right,"  he  said.  "  Don't  let  your 
conscience  worry  you  about  that.  This  is  for  a  con 
tinuous  ride  to  a  terminus  of  the  road." 

"  I  see,"  said  Luke;  but  what  he  saw  was  that  his 
father,  whom  he  loved  too  much  to  hurt  uselessly, 
had,  out  of  kindness,  strained  a  legal  definition.  His 
father,  he  reflected,  was  not  a  man  to  abuse  privilege 
in  large  matters,  and  would  be  only  hurt  by  a  refusal 


4  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

in  the  present  trivial  affair.  Luke  put  the  pass  in  the 
cuff  of  his  overcoat  and  silently  decided  to  pay  his 
fare  to  the  conductor.  The  elder  man,  big  as  he  was, 
stamped  his  feet  on  the  concrete  pavement  and  com 
plained  of  the  chill  in  the  April  air;  the  younger  was 
too  happy  to  notice  the  cold. 

"  Train's  five  minutes  late,"  remarked  the  Con 
gressman  as,  through  a  cautiously  unbuttoned  over 
coat,  he  drew  and  snapped  open  a  heavy  watch. 

"  Is  your  time  correct?"  asked  Luke. 

"  Hasn't  varied  three  seconds  a  week  in  ten  years," 
his  father  assured  him. 

Neither  was  thinking  of  what  was  being  said.  The 
younger  man  was  so  full  of  the  high  work  ahead  of 
him  that  he  had  already  forgotten  his  mother's  ill-con 
cealed  tears  at  parting;  the  elder,  granted  political 
favors  rather  because  of  his  personal  popularity  and 
pliant  good-nature  than  for  any  ability  at  the  game  of 
vote-keeping,  possessed  at  least  the  chief  virtue  of  the 
politician :  he  was  a  man  of  few  words,  and  the  more 
truly  he  felt  the  less  he  spoke. 

The  "  up-train  "  arrived  (it  was  the  "  down-train  " 
that  Luke  must  take),  and  the  Congressman  was  be 
sieged  by  the  newsboys,  who  knelt  about  him,  strik 
ing  their  rolls  of  newspapers  on  the  pavement  the 
quicker  to  burst  the  wrappers  in  which  the  journals 
were  closely  confined. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  5 

"Press,  Mr.  Huber?  " 

"North  American  or  Record?" 

"Ledger?" 

The  boys  bobbed  up,  flourishing  their  wares. 

"  Aw,  I  know  what  he  wants,"  said  an  older  lad, 
elbowing  the  rest.  "  Here's  yer  Inquirer,  Mr.  Con 
gressman." 

Luke's  father  smiled:  he  had  never  outgrown  his 
liking  for  homage  from  whatever  quarter;  but  he 
bought  a  paper  from  each  boy,  giving  each  a  five- 
cent  piece  and  telling  him  to  keep  the  change. 

"  You  might  as  well  take  the  lot,"  he  said  to  Luke. 
"  You'll  want  something  to  read  on  the  train."  He 
was  handing  all  the  papers  to  Luke,  when  his  eyes 
were  caught  by  a  large  headline  on  the  first  page 
of  one  of  them.  "  Hello !  "  he  commented,  his  lips 
immediately  pursing  themselves  as  if  to  whistle.  As 
Luke  took  its  fellows,  the  Congressman  folded  this 
paper  with  the  sudden  skill  of  the  confirmed  news 
paper-reader,  who  can  handle  a  journal  in  the  open 
air  as  neatly  as  a  trained  yachtsman  can  reef  a  top 
sail  before  an  undesirable  wind.  "  I  see  the  Big 
Man's  been  giving  some  more  testimony  to  that  com 
mittee  of  the  legislature  up  at  Albany." 

For  the  past  few  weeks,  Luke  had  been  too  busy 
preparing  for  his  bar-examinations  to  keep  track  of 
current  events. 


6  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Who's  the  Big  Man?  "  he  asked. 

The  elder  Huber  raised  his  thick  brows. 

"  You  know,"  said  he,  and  he  mentioned  the  name 
of  one  of  the  richest  men  in  America;  not  a  man  that 
had  made  his  wealth  even  through  the  building  of  a 
great  industry,  but  one  that  had,  by  "  editing  "  money 
and  combinations  of  money  much  in  that  manner  in 
which  a  news-desk  copy-reader  edits  the  reporters' 
"  copy,"  made  himself  a  member  of  the  triumvirate 
— rumor  said  made  the  triumvirate  and  made  himself 
its  head — which  had  for  years  controlled  alike  the 
labor  and  capital  of  the  country. 

"What's  he  been  saying?"  asked  Luke. 

"  He's  been  answering  questions  about  campaign 
contributions." 

"To  the  Democrats?" 

"  Well,  no."  The  Congressman  was  reluctant. 
"  It  seems  it  was  to  the  Republicans." 

Luke  colored. 

"  Of  course,"  he  said,  "  I  always  knew  those  fel 
lows  had  no  real  political  convictions,  and  of  course 
any  party  is  bound  to  have  some  bad  lots  among  its 
small  fry,  but  I  do  wish  our  National  Committee 
would  kick  out  of  the  ranks  the  men  that  take  money 
from  such  people." 

The  father  did  not  like  this.  Luke  had  been  a 
great  deal  away  from  him,  first  at  boarding-school 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  7 

and  then  at  college  and  the  law-school,  so  that  the 
two  had  not  seen  much  of  each  other  for  many  years; 
but  since  the  younger  had  come  home  this  last  time, 
he  had  given  frequent  expression  to  sentiments  of  the 
present  sort,  and  the  Congressman,  although  he  dis 
liked  argument  as  keenly  as  most  Congressmen,  felt 
that  now  it  was  his  duty  to  protest. 

"  My  boy,"  he  said,  "  you  won't  go  far  if  you  go 
about  talking  that  way.  This  contribution  went  to 
the  fund  that  elected  your  District-Attorney  Leigh- 
ton." 

"  I  don't  believe  it!" 

"  That's  the  testimony." 

"  I  don't  believe  it.  This  man's  swearing  to  that 
so  as  to  hurt  the  party  in  New  York." 

'  This  man?  "  Luke's  father  repeated  the  phrase 
interrogatively.  His  usual  taciturnity  fell  from  him. 
"Why  do  you  say  that?  How  do  you  know  it? 
Why  should  he  want  to  hurt  the  party?  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  what  do  you  know  about  '  this  man,'  any 
how  ?  Nothing  but  a  lot  of  unfounded  gossip  printed 
in  papers  that  want  him  to  come  over  to  their  side. 
Why  shouldn't  he  help  our  party?  I  do  know  some 
thing  about  him.  I've  never  met  him,  but  I  know  the 
whole  story  of  his  career — know  it  intimately — and  I 
tell  you  that  his  is  the  greatest  intellect  in  America 
to-day,  and  he  has  used  his  intellect,  and  the  wealth! 


8  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

it  got  him,  to  help — not  only  once,  but  again  and 
again — to  help  and  to  save — yes,  save,  the  party  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  nation.  I  tell  you " 

He  did  not  tell  any  more.  The  down-train  had 
been  rumbling  over  the  last  span  of  the  river-bridge 
when  he  began  talking;  and  now  it  rolled  before  the 
station. 

Luke  took  his  suitcase  in  one  hand  and  extended 
the  other  in  farewell.  Unexpectedly  he  felt  a  lump 
in  his  throat. 

"Good-by,"  he  said. 

His  father  gripped  the  hand.  His  habitual  in 
articulateness  redescended  upon  him.  "  You've — I 
know  you're  all  right,  Luke.  Don't  forget  to  write 
once  a  week:  your  mother  worries." 

"  I  won't  forget." 

They  stood,  hands  clasped. 

Close  by,  the  "  train-crier  "  was  calling  in  a  high, 
nasal  voice: 

"  Train  for  Mountwille,  Doncaster,  Downington, 
Philadelphy,  and  Noo  York!  First  stop  Mount 
wille  !  " 

"  And,  Luke " 

"Yes,  father?" 

"  Don't  make  charges  when  you  don't  know  facts." 

"  Perhaps  I  have  a  weakness  that  way,"  Luke 
smiled. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  9 

His  smile  conjured  another. 

"  That's  right;  now  you're  showing  the  proper 
spirit."  With  his  free  hand,  the  elder  man  patted  the 
younger's  shoulder.  "  Stick  to  your  books  and  stick 
to  Leighton.  Gratitude  is  the  best  virtue — and  the 
rarest." 

Luke  nodded. 

"  Now,  get  aboard,"  concluded  his  counselor. 
"  Got  your  pass? — and  the  checks? — I'll  be  running 
over  occasionally,  I  dare  say. — And  let  me  know  if  I 
can  do  anything  for  you." 

Luke  clambered  into  the  smoking-car.  He  took  a 
seat  on  the  side  near  the  station  and  waved  his  hand 
to  his  father  as  the  engine  began  to  snort.  He  paid 
his  fare  to  the  conductor,  and,  when  Americus  was 
well  behind  him,  he  opened  the  window,  tore  the  pink 
pass  into  a  dozen  small  pieces  and  let  the  clean  April 
breeze  carry  them  away. 

At  Doncaster  he  changed  to  the  Pullman  car  that 
was  there  attached  to  the  train;  he  again  carefully 
chose  his  seat,  this  time  selecting  one  on  the  side  from 
which  he  could  the  better  enjoy  his  first  view  of  New 
York.  He  had  always  liked  this  view  when  it  came  to 
him  on  his  returns  to  Boston  after  his  vacations;  it 
wakened  in  him  the  dreams  of  the  day  which  should 
light  him  into  the  city,  there  to  work  for  its  salvation 
and  the  nation's.  His  youthful  dreams  were  still 


io  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

with  him,  and,  since  the  moment  when  the  sun  had 
rent  the  Susquehanna  mists,  he  was  looking  forward 
to  that  sight  of  the  southernmost  walls  of  New  York 
towering  like  the  ramparts  of  a  mighty  fortress  above 
the  crowded  waters  of  the  Jersey  City  ferry.  Then, 
indeed,  with  the  battle  yet  to  be  fought,  he  would  feel 
as  the  crusaders  must  have  felt  at  their  first  sight  of 
Jerusalem. 

But  Luke's  train  was  late,  and  by  the  time  that  it 
reached  the  point  from  which  the  city  should  have 
been  visible,  the  mists  had  again  descended.  They 
had  deepened.  All  that  Luke,  with  straining  eyes, 
could  see  were  a  few  spectral  turrets,  distorted  and 
ugly  in  the  thickened  atmosphere,  swaying  overhead 
upon  waves  of  yellow  fog. 

§  2.  Jack  Porcellis,  with  his  mother's  motor,  met 
Luke.  They  were  driven  to  the  apartment-house  in 
Thirty-ninth  Street  where,  upon  Jack's  advice, 
Huber  had  written  to  engage  two  small  rooms  and 
bath.  It  was  Jack  Porcellis  (his  real  name  was  John 
Jay  Porcellis)  who  had  District-Attorney  Leighton 
for  a  brother-in-law  and  had  induced  that  official  to 
give  Luke  a  place  on  the  staff  of  the  public  prose 
cutor. 

Porcellis  was  considerably  taller  than  Huber  and 
very  considerably  thinner.  He  was  a  quiet  member 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  :n 

of  an  old  Knickerbocker  family,  who  was  at  home 
in  every  sort  of  society,  had  gone  to  law-school  as 
an  intellectual  diversion  and  now  spent  most  of  his 
time  traveling,  always  well  within  his  income, 
through  whatever  lands  chanced  to  attract  his  con 
tinually  changing  fancy. 

"  I  hope  you'll  be  comfortable  here,"  he  said, 
when  they  had  been  lifted  to  the  fifth  floor  of  the 
house,  which  was  dry  and  hot  from  the  steam  radi 
ators  and  smelled  as  all  steam-heated  houses  smell. 

The  elevator-boy  was  unlocking  the  door  to  Luke's 
apartments  while  Porcellis  spoke.  He  stood  aside 
as  the  two  men  entered. 

"  I  think  I'll  make  out  very  well,"  said  Luke.  He 
handed  the  boy  a  tip  and  dismissed  him.  "  It's  not 
so  big  as  our  rooms  in  Ware  Hall,  but  then  there 
were  two  of  us  there." 

The  quarters  were  indeed  small.  The  parlor  was 
almost  diminutive,  and  the  bedroom,  which  opened 
from  it,  was  an  alcove;  the  front  window  gave  upon 
the  busy  street,  with  a  bit  of  Broadway  to  the 
right,  and  the  bathroom,  in  American  fashion,  was 
as  large  as  the  parlor. 

"  I  did  the  best  I  could  for  you,"  Porcellis  ex 
plained:  he  failed  to  account  for  his  friend's  tone 
by  the  fact  that  Luke  was  fresh  from  the  spacious 
ness  of  a  small  town. 


12  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Huber  softened. 

"  I  didn't  mean  to  criticise,  Jack.  I'm  sure  this 
will  do  splendidly.  After  all,  I'm  in  New  York  for 
hard  work." 

"  I  know  you  are."  Porcellis  smiled  faintly. 
"  You  were  never  anywhere  for  anything  else.  Well, 
you'll  probably  get  over  that  before  you've  quite 
spoiled  yourself  for  everything.  It's  a  way  New 
York  has." 

Huber  was  tolerant.  "Is  it?  You  see,  I  don't 
know  the  town  very  well." 

"  Who  does?  However,  I'll  show  you  what  I  can 
before  I  sail — I'm  going  to  Russia  next  week,  you 
know — and  by  way  of  a  beginning  I've  brought  you 
a  ready-made  engagement  for  to-night.  We'll  dine 
at  my  club,  and  see  the  Follies,  and  after  that — 
well,  I've  got  you  a  card  to  Mrs.  Ruysdael's  dance." 

"  This  doesn't  sound  like  preparation  for  work," 
chuckled  Luke;  "  but,  thank  you — and  who  is  Mrs. 
Ruysdael?" 

"Who  is  Mrs.  Ruysdael?"  Porcellis  repeated. 
He  was  stroking  the  spot  where  his  blond  mustache 
had  been  a  year  ago,  but  where,  because  mustaches 
had  since  become  unfashionable,  it  no  longer  grew. 
"  Why,  the  Mrs.  Ruysdael,  of  course :  Mrs.  Cor 
nelius  Ruysdael." 

When  he  heard  it  in  full,  Luke  remembered  the 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  13 

name.  Of  Mrs.  Ruysdael  he  knew  only  that  she 
was  a  woman  of  fashion;  but  her  husband  was  every 
where  known  as  the  worthy  representative  of  a 
Dutch  New  York  name  long  eminent  in  the  coun 
try's  history.  The  family  had  been  rich  for  several 
generations,  but  they  had  proved  themselves  sur 
prisingly  able  to  wear  the  cloak  of  wealth  with 
dignity. 

"  I  remember  now,"  said  Luke.  "  They're  said  to 
be  among  the  heaviest  real-estate  owners  in  New 
York,  aren't  they?  " 

Porcellis  laughed. 

"Well,  yes,  they  are,"  he  conceded:  "but  none 
of  us  ever  think  of  that.  I  doubt  if  even  they  do. 
They  leave  their  estate  to  their  agents  to  manage, 
and  we  leave  the  story  of  it  to  the  yellow  press  to 
talk  about." 

"  I  never  knew  there  was  any  story  connected 
with  it." 

"No?  Well,  for  my  part,  I  don't  believe  there 
is.  Some  labor-agitator  searched  the  records  and 
tried  to  prove  they  made  their  first  fortune  buying 
condemned  muskets  from  the  British  garrisons  just 
before  the  Revolution  and  selling  them  as  good  arms 
to  the  Continental  Congress.  He  said  they  invested 
the  profits  in  New  York  land  as  soon  as  prices  fell 
after  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed." 


14  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Was  it  true?  "  asked  Luke. 

Porcellis  shrugged. 

"  It  was  all  a  long  time  ago,  at  any  rate,"  he  said, 
"  and  the  Ruysdaels  are  very  nice  people  now:  you 
would  never  guess  they  were  worth  more  than  a  mil 
lion.  Besides,  Charley — that's  my  Wall  Street 
cousin — says  they've  somehow  funded  their  land- 
holdings  with  one  of  Old  Nap's  concerns.  I  don't 
know.  I  don't  pretend  to  understand  finance." 

Luke  felt  extremely  ignorant. 

"Old  Nap?"  he  wondered.     "Who's  he?" 

In  reply,  Porcellis  mentioned  the  name  of  the  man 
of  whom  Luke's  father  had  spoken  so  highly  that 
morning  at  the  railway  station  in  Americus. 

Huber  pushed  forward  a  chair. 

"  Sit  down,"  he  said,  "  and  have  a  cigarette.  I 
want  to  ask  you  one  question  more.  You've  been 
all  over  the  map.  You've  got  the  cosmopolitan  point 
of  view.  What  do  you  think  of  this  man?" 

"  I  think,"  said  Porcellis,  accepting  both  the  chair 
and  the  cigarette,  "  that  it  doesn't  make  any  differ 
ence  what  I  think  of  him."  He  lit  the  cigarette. 
"  But  I'm  quite  sure,"  he  presently  added,  "  he  is 
the  sort  of  man  nobody  can  help  thinking  something 
about.  Why  do  you  ask?  " 

"  Because "  Luke  was  not  certain  why  he  did 

ask.  He  could  not  politely  inquire  of  Porcellis 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  15 

whether  he  believed  that  his  brother-in-law  had  ac 
cepted,  to  aid  his  election,  money  from  a  power  that 
could  not  but  be  interested  in  the  official  actions  of 
a  District-Attorney  of  New  York.  "  Because,"  he 
compromised,  "  my  father  was  speaking  to  me  about 
him  only  this  morning." 

"  So  were  a  lot  of  other  fathers.  So  are  a  lot 
of  other  fathers  every  morning.  That's  greatness. 
What  I  think  is  that  Old  Napoleon  is  the  greatest 
man  this  country  has  ever  produced." 

"  You  think  so  well  of  him  as  that!  "  Luke  was 
amazed. 

"  I  didn't  say  I  thought  he  was  good,"  Porcellis 
defined;  "  I  said  I  thought  he  was  great.  Greatness 
hasn't  anything  to  do  with  good  or  bad,  or  only  acci 
dentally.  The  greatest  national  figure  a  country 
produces  is  the  figure  that  most  intensely  and — well, 
and  powerfully — expresses  that  country.  That's  why 
Shakespeare  was  the  greatest  man  produced  by 
Elizabethan  England." 

"  Oh — Shakespeare  !  "  laughed  Luke. 

"Why  not?"  asked  Porcellis.  "Shakespeare 
lived  in  a  country  and  time  of  expanding  intellectual 
conceptions,  and  he  expressed  them  the  way  I've  said. 
We  live  in  a  country  and  time  of  tremendous  financial 
combination  and  expansion;  we're  not  working  in 
the  material  of  intellectual  conceptions,  except  as  we 


16  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

conceive  finance  intellectually;  we're  working  with 
figures  and  dollar-marks  and  differentials  and  com 
pound  interest  and  dividends  as  complicated  as  an 
astronomer's  calculations.  Well,  this  little  old  man 
in  Wall  Street  can  see  those  figures  before  they  hap 
pen;  he  can  make  them  come  to  life  out  of  nothing 
— make  them  happen,  give  them  life  just  the  way 
Shakespeare  gave  life  to  another  sort  of  ideas. 
These  ideas  are  the  ideas  of  our  country;  they  are 
our  country.  Here  is  a  genius  that  most  fully  and 
powerfully,  most  intensely  and  perfectly  expresses 
them,  and  so  I  say  he  is  the  American  Shakespeare." 

Luke  writhed  in  his  chair  opposite  Porcellis.  He 
could  withhold  the  question  no  longer. 

"  Then " — he  almost  blurted  it  out  at  last — 
"  those  campaign  contributions " 

But  Porcellis  was  scandal-proof. 

"  Those !  "  he  said  lightly.  "  You'll  have  to  ask 
Brouwer  Leighton  about  them." 

§3.  After  they  left  the  theater,  the  two  young 
men  were  driven,  again  in  the  motor  belonging  to 
Mrs.  Porcellis,  up  the  noisy  river  of  yellow  light 
that  was  Broadway,  where  their  vehicle  joined  a  long 
procession,  until  they  reached  a  cross-street  in  the 
early  Fifties.  Then  their  car  darted  from  the  pa 
rade  and  plunged  through  a  dark  thoroughfare  to 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  17 

Fifth  Avenue.  They  drew  up  before  a  house  where 
Luke  could  at  first  see  little  save  that  from  its  door 
way,  high  above  the  pavement,  a  long  and  narrow 
tent  of  white  canvas  striped  with  red  ran  to  the  curb. 
Several  other  motors  were  ahead  of  theirs,  so  theirs 
had  to  wait  its  turn. 

"  Is  this  the  place?  "  asked  Luke. 

Porcellis  nodded. 

"  It  does  look  rather  like  a  barn  from  the  out 
side,"  he  said,  guessing  his  companion's  thought  and 
agreeing  with  it.  "  That's  a  Ruysdael  way :  they 
maintain  the  old  tradition  of  severe  exteriors;  they 
don't  believe  in  flaunting  their  wealth  in  the  face  of 
the  public;  they  believe  in  keeping  the  best  for  their 
friends." 

Luke  leaned  shamelessly  forward.  Whenever  he 
had  gone  to  dances  heretofore,  the  houses  of  his 
hostesses  had  shown  lights  in  every  window  and  dis 
pensed  a  glow  of  festivity  to  the  streets;  but  this 
house,  essentially  forbidding,  stood  dark  and  silent, 
its  windows  masked.  Except  for  the  faint  illumina 
tion  of  a  street-lamp  that  sputtered  bluely  at  the 
corner,  the  only  scintillations  visible  were  two  thin 
lines  of  radiance,  one  along  the  pavement,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  entrance-tent,  and  a  corresponding 
one  above,  between  the  walls  of  the  tent  and  the 
loose  overhang  of  its  roof:  these  and  a  glowing  spot 


1 8  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

at  the  end  of  the  tent  upon  the  curb  where,  between 
rows  of  ragged  night  figures  watching  the  scene,  dis 
mounting  guests  appeared  and  disappeared — white 
shirt-fronts,  and  opera-cloaks,  and  the  glint  of  jewels 
— like  pictures  in  dissolving  views. 

With  each  arrival,  motors  swung  away  from  the 
entrance,  turned  to  the  other  side  of  the  street,  and 
proceeded  to  the  farther  corner  there  to  await  their 
recall,  while  their  drivers  gossiped  in  the  darkness 
or  drank  beer  at  a  convenient  bar.  Thus,  with  starts 
and  stops  like  those  of  an  American  railway  train 
leaving  a  station,  the  Porcellis  car  slowly  approached 
the  canvas  mouth. 

When  that  mouth  yawned  directly  before  them, 
Luke  and  Porcellis,  the  door  of  their  automobile 
held  open  by  a  servant  in  livery,  descended  into  the 
tent.  A  string  of  incandescent  lamps  had  been  hung 
in  this  corridor — it  was  the  light  from  these  lamps 
which  crept  from  above  and  below  the  walls — and  a 
thick  carpet  covered  the  pavement.  Along  it  they 
walked  to  the  house-steps,  where  two  turbaned  East 
Indians  stood  ready  to  relieve  them  of  their  hats 
and  top-coats  and  show  them  to  a  room  prepared  for 
incoming  men-guests. 

"  Now,"  said  Porcellis,  "  you  see  what  I  was  talk 
ing  about." 

A  greater  contrast  between  the  outside  and  the 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  19 

inside  of  the  Ruysdael  house  it  would,  indeed,  have 
been  hard  to  find.  The  reception  hall  was  of  white 
marble  and  of  a  height  generally  seen  only  in  public 
buildings.  Pillars  held  the  distant  ceiling;  the  stair 
case  rose  in  a  pentagonal  tower,  a  copy,  Porcellis  ex 
plained,  of  that  in  the  Francis  First  wing  of  the 
Chateau  of  Blois;  the  light,  although  its  sources  were 
hidden,  was  almost  blinding  to  eyes  fresh  from  the 
darkness  of  the  street;  there  was  music  heard  lightly 
from  a  distance,  and  the  air  was  faint  with  the  scent 
of  American  Beauty  roses. 

Porcellis  and  Luke  went  up  the  carved  staircase  in 
the  tower,  which  was  open  at  each  landing  so  as  to 
command  a  view  of  the  hall,  and  were  directed  to 
the  men's  room,  where  three  valets  were  in  attend 
ance.  Against  the  walls  of  this  room  were  several 
dressing-tables,  each  with  a  strong  lamp  before  it 
and  each  covered  with  toilet  articles. 

"  I'm  not  sure,"  said  Luke,  in  a  whisper  that  was 
both  amazed  and  amused,  "  whether  I'm  in  a  belle's 
boudoir  or  a  musical  comedy  star's  dressing-room." 

"  It's  a  judicious  combination,"  said  Porcellis  in 
a  conversational  tone  that  disregarded  the  fluttering 
attendants.  He  picked  up  a  gold-backed  buffer  and 
polished  his  always  coruscating  finger-nails. 

Luke  contented  himself  with  a  touch  to  his  hair, 
which  had  a  way  of  standing  upright,  and  a  tug  at 


20  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

his  tie,  which  was  forever  straining  toward  inde 
pendence. 

"  What's  this?  "  he  asked  as  he  lifted  a  glass  case. 
He  removed  its  lid  and  sniffed  at  the  contents.  "  It 
looks  like  rouge,"  he  added. 

"  It  is,"  said  Porcellis. 

"  But  I  thought  this  room  was  for  men,"  said 
Luke. 

Porcellis  drew  down  the  corners  of  his  sensitive 
mouth. 

"  It  is,"  he  said  again. 

They  went  toward  the  ballroom. 

A  man-servant  with  those  brief  side-whiskers 
which,  twenty  years  before,  were  used  to  proclaim 
the  millionaire,  stood  splendidly  against  the  crush 
about  the  doorway.  He  bent  to  each  newcomer  and 
secured  a  name,  which,  turning  his  head,  but  not 
moving  his  body,  he  then  shouted,  from  an  impas 
sive  face,  into  the  ballroom. 

Porcellis  nodded  to  him  familiarly 

"  Good-evening,  James,"  he  said. 

"  Good-evening,  Mr.  Porcellis.  And  the  other 
gentleman,  sir?" 

"  Mr.  Huber,"  said  Porcellis  with  careful  dis 
tinctness. 

The  servant  turned  his  head  toward  the  crowd  in 
the  room  behind  him. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  21 

"  Mr.  Porcellis !  "  he  cried,  and  then,  as  if  it  were 
an  afterthought:  "Mr.  Urer!" 

"  It's  all  right,"  Porcellis  hurriedly  reassured 
Luke.  "  Nobody  pays  the  slightest  attention  to 
him,  anyhow." 

Nobody  did.  As  they  shouldered  their  way  for 
ward,  the  huge  apartment  that  they  now  entered  was 
like  what  Luke  thought  the  rooms  of  state  at  Ver 
sailles  must  be,  and  the  great  hall  in  the  Brussels 
Palace  of  Justice.  All  about  the  walls,  and  espe 
cially  about  the  large  entrance,  was  a  press  of  men 
and  women,  standing  still,  or  moving  slowly  from 
group  to  group  through  an  invisible,  but  palpable, 
cloud  formed  by  a  mixture  of  the  odor  of  wither 
ing  flowers,  Parisian  scents,  and  human  sweat.  A 
band  of  music,  concealed  in  a  far-away  balcony, 
blared  rag-time,  but  distinct  from  its  impudence, 
there  rose  from  all  these  people  the  noise  of  shoe- 
leather  dragged  over  parquette  flooring,  the  com 
posite  of  laughter  in  many  keys  and  the  perplexed 
buzz  of  small-talk.  The  moving  figures  of  the 
women,  over  whom  countless  aigrettes  quivered,  had 
a  kaleidoscopic  effect,  curiously  unreal:  an  effect  of 
flashing  colors — crimson,  ivory,  blues,  greens,  and 
pinks — splashing  against  white  breasts  and  backs, 
falling  away  from  dazzling  shoulders,  the  waves 
mounting  in  oily  satin,  feline  velvet,  or  clinging 


22  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

peau  de  cygnes,  and  breaking  in  the  foam  of  lace 
and  the  flying  spray  of  diamonds.  Here  even  the 
ordinary  black-and-white  of  the  men  became  black- 
and-gray  or  black-and-lavender,  with  gems  for  waist 
coat  buttons.  On  the  dancing-floor  many  couples, 
hugging  each  other  so  tightly  that  their  bodies 
touched  from  chest  to  center,  swayed  to  the  sensuous 
music  of  a  one-step,  the  leaders'  high  collars  wilting, 
the  fingers  of  their  right  hands  spread  wide  along  the 
women's  upper  vertebras,  their  partners  looking  into 
their  intent  faces  from  narrowed  eyes. 

The  picture  was  too  bright,  too  varied,  for  the 
unaccustomed  mind  to  seize  it:  Luke  turned  to  Por- 
cellis: 

"And  Mrs.  Ruysdael?" 

He  was  expecting  his  hostess  to  meet  her  guests  at 
the  door  of  the  ballroom. 

Porcellis,  however,  did  not  wholly  understand. 

"  Oh,  she's  about  somewhere,  I  dare  say,"  he  re 
sponded — "  though  she  doesn't  care  for  late  hours 
and  sometimes  leaves  after  the  third  dance.  Come 
on.  I'll  introduce  you  to  some  worth-while  people." 

He  introduced  Luke  to  a  great  many  people,  for 
he  seemed  to  know  them  all.  There  was  the  British 
Ambassador  and  a  German  baron,  a  string  of 
dowagers  with  marriageable  daughters  (Luke 
danced  with  each  daughter  and  liked  her) ,  an  artist, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  23 

a  scientist,  and  a  bibliophile,  and  several  debutantes 
that  were  not  marriageable  at  all,  but  were  quite 
frankly  determined  to  marry. 

As  is  the  way  when  a  name  runs  in  one's  brain, 
three  out  of  five  of  the  people  that  Luke  talked  to 
sooner  or  later  mentioned  the  man  that  the  elder 
Huber  had  spoken  of  that  morning  and  that  Por- 
cellis  had  later  so  highly  extolled.  The  Ambassador 
said  that  this  man  had,  by  lending  or  withholding 
tremendous  sums,  preserved  the  peace  of  nations;  the 
artist  praised  him  as  the  only  true  patron  of  art  in 
America;  the  scientist  told  how  the  same  man  had 
established  and  equipped  a  now  world-famous  insti 
tution  for  the  study  and  cure  of  a  world-plague;  the 
bibliophile  envied  his  first  editions  and  medieval 
manuscripts. 

Leading  his  prettiest  partner  across  the  floor, 
Luke's  glance,  in  spite  of  his  will,  rested  on  a  dia 
mond  pendant  that  hung  from  a  thread  of  gold  about 
her  neck  and  fell  above  her  beautiful  bust.  She  was 
a  girl  with  the  face  of  one  of  those  Italian  peasant 
girls  that  the  early  painters  loved  to  paint  as  Ma 
donnas,  and  Huber  felt  that  his  regard  must  be  an 
insult. 

The  girl,  however,  took  the  pendant  between  a 
white  thumb  and  forefinger  and  looked  from  it  to 
him  with  pleased  eyes. 


24  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"You  like  it?"  she  asked. 

"  I  think  it's  wonderful,"  said  he. 

"  It  is  pretty,"  she  replied.  "  My  uncle  gave  it 
to  me  on  my  last  birthday.  It  used  to  be  in  a  heathen 
god's  crown  in  some  Chinese  or  Hindu  temple  or 
other." 

"  The  god  ought  to  be  pleased  to  lose  it  to  you," 
said  Luke,  "  even  if  it  didn't  come  to  you  directly." 

"  Oh,  but  it  did  come  to  me  directly,"  she  laughed 
prettily.  u  That's  half  the  charm  of  it.  Uncle  sent 
right  over  there  and  got  it  for  me." 

When  Luke  found  Porcellis  again,  he  asked  him 
about  this. 

"  Who's  that  girl  with  the  broad,  low  forehead," 
he  inquired,  "  and  the  expression  of  a  stained-glass 
saint?" 

"  You're  aiming  high,"  said  Porcellis;  "  that's  one 
of  the  richest  girls  in  New  York." 

"  Who's  her  uncle?" 

"  Ah,  she's  been  talking  of  him,  has  she?  Well, 
I  don't  blame  her.  Her  uncle  is  the  man  I  call  the 
American  Shakespeare.  She'll  get  a  lot  of  his  money, 
too,  for  he  has  no  children  of  his  own." 

"Is  he   here   himself?" 

"  Not  he.  He  doesn't  care  for  this  sort  of  thing. 
That  football-playerish  sort  of  fellow  that  the  niece 
introduced  you  to — that's  young  Hallett  she's  danc- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  25 

ing  with  now — he's  the  son  of  George  J.  And 
there's  George  J.  himself!  " 

Luke  remembered  that  George  J.  Hallett  was  one 
of  the  financiers  whose  name  was  most  frequently 
associated  with  the  donor  of  diamonds  and  benefac 
tor  of  medical  research. 

"  And,"  continued  Porcellis,  u  do  you  see  that 
stoutish,  nervous  pale  man  over  there  talking  to  the 
British  Ambassador?  Oh,  don't  be  alarmed:  they're 
probably  not  talking  about  anything  more  important 
than  how  they  hate  dances.  Well,  that's  the  third 
member  of  the  triumvirate :  that's  L.  Bergen  Riv- 
ington." 

Luke  went  home  in  the  early  dawn,  feeling  that 
these  were  pleasant  people,  however  they  came  by 
their  money,  and  that  he  had  certainly  judged  the  one 
that  was  not  there  long  before  he  knew  much  about 
him. 

§  4.  Leighton  was  out  of  town — he,  too,  was  be 
fore  the  legislature's  investigating  committee  at 
Albany — and  the  bar-examination  was  not  to  be  held 
for  a  week  or  more,  so  that  Luke  had  the  next  few 
days  to  devote  to  himself.  The  use  that  he  put 
them  to  was  an  endeavor  to  learn  what  he  could  of 
the  city  of  which  he  had  seen  so  little  before  he  came 
to  live  there.  He  saw  what,  considered  of  itself, 


26  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

was  a  great  deal,  but  what,  considered  as  a  part  of 
New  York,  was  minute;  and  at  many  turns,  the  num 
ber  of  which  surprised  him — for  long  as  he  had 
known  of  the  man's  power,  he  never  before  looked 
for  its  effects — he  came  across  traces  of  that  finan 
cier  who  more  and  more  seemed  to  him  to  be  the 
controlling  force  in  America. 

He  was  shown  a  great  college,  handsomely 
housed,  splendidly  equipped,  in  which  the  higher  edu 
cation  was  provided  free  to  every  graduate  of  the 
public  schools  that  chose  to  take  advantage  of  it, 
and  this,  he  was  told,  had  been  given  to  New  York 
by  the  great  "  money  editor."  He  was  taken  through 
a  cancer  hospital,  where  mesothorium,  which  cost 
about  $52,000  a  grain,  and  radium  at  $64,000,  had 
been  bought  and  were  kept  and  used  without  charge 
in  the  treatment  of  poor  patients — where  physicians 
and  surgeons  of  international  repute  were  engaged  to 
spend  all  their  time  searching  for  a  true  cure  and 
final  prevention — and  this  institution  had  been  largely 
endowed  by  the  same  man,  whose  first  wife,  it  ap 
peared,  had  died  of  cancer.  There  were  homes  for 
destitute  widows,  pure-milk  depots,  orphan  asylums, 
all  assisted  by  this  man  or  his  associates. 

"Do  you  know  him?"  Luke  asked  Porcellis  one 
evening  as  they  sat  at  dinner  in  the  latter's  club. 
They  had  been  talking  of  many  things,  but  Luke 
found  this  one  conspicuously  interesting. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  27 

"  No,"  said  Porcellis.  "  He  doesn't  go  out  much. 
I  saw  him  once.  I  was  being  shown  through  his 
library — it's  a  marvelous  place,  full  of  treasure-trove 
that  would  make  a  scholar  think  he  was  in  heaven — 
and  the  librarian  pointed  him  out  to  me :  he  was 
sitting  in  the  alcove  that  held  the  First  Folios,  and 
he  was  reading  the  current  '  World  Almanac.'  ' 

They  both  laughed. 

"  Still,"  protested  Luke,  "  he  seems  more  Jovian 
than  ever  to  me.  I  don't  know  whether  he's  a  good 
Jove  or  a  bad  one,  but  I  don't  see  how  he  can  really 
be  bad  when  he  does  so  much  good." 

Porcellis  was  still  intolerant  of  the  ethical  ques 
tion.  He  pointed  out  that  nobody  of  weight  ever 
knew  or  cared  whether  Shakespeare's  life  was  moral 
or  whether  the  effect  of  his  work  was  immoral.  What 
had  happened  in  regard  to  the  American  was  that, 
because  he  had  at  last  been  secured  to  come  to  a 
public  hearing,  people  were  beginning  to  realize  that 
he  was  a  living  man  and  not  a  force  of  nature.  For 
a  quarter  of  a  century  he  had  been  the  greatest  indi 
vidual  power  in  the  United  States,  and  for  all  that 
time  he  had  remained  hidden.  He  had  been  doing 
daily  tremendous  things,  things  that  were  epic  in  their 
sweep  and  yet  affected  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
included  in  the  census — and  nobody  knew  of  them,  no 
paper  printed  a  word  about  them,  until  he  had  passed 


28  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

them  out  of  his  own  hands  and  into  those  of  his 
lieutenants,  not  until,  indeed,  his  lieutenants  had  sent 
them  so  far  from  hand  to  hand  that  none  could 
tell  precisely  when  and  where  they  had  started. 

"  The  man's  a  genius,"  said  Porcellis,  "  and  like 
all  geniuses  he's  just  what  we  all  are  when  his  genius 
isn't  at  work.  What  he  feels  is  just  what  we'd  feel 
if  we  were  in  his  place." 

"  Still,"  argued  Luke,  "  the  influence  of  such  a 
man  is  too  great;  it's  dangerous.  It  oughtn't  to  be 
allowed  in  politics." 

"  There  you  go  again  !  "  sighed  Porcellis.  "  Al 
low?  How  are  you  going  to  allow  or  disallow  a 
force?  It  simply  is.  This  man  can  give  the  big 
politicians  certain  large  advantages  if  they  pass  laws 
that  suit  him.  The  big  politicians  can  give  the  little 
politicians  certain  lesser  advantages  if  they  furnish 
the  votes.  The  lesser  politicians  can  get  the  votes 
if  they  let  the  police  charge  the  criminals  for  pro 
tection  in  crime.  Each  man  seizes  his  opportunity, 
and  that's  all  there  is  about  it." 

"  You  think  so?  "  said  Luke.  "  I  can't  believe  it. 
I  can't  believe  it  would  be  necessary  if  the  right  laws 
were  passed  and  enforced.  Wait  till  your  brother- 
in-law  gets  the  District-Attorney's  office  cleaned 
out  and  in  working  order.  Then  you'll  see  I'm 
right." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  29 

§  5.  At  ten  o'clock  on  the  following  Sunday  night, 
Luke,  on  a  lonely  walk  through  the  East  Side,  noticed 
that,  whereas  the  front  rooms  of  the  saloons  were 
darkened,  the  back  rooms  were  all  alight.  The  doors 
to  these  back  rooms  were  forever  swinging  to  the 
entrance  and  exit  of  unmistakable  customers,  many 
of  whom  came  out  bearing  foaming  jugs  of  beer 
under  the  indifferent  noses  of  policemen  at  the  cor 
ners.  Luke  chose  a  saloon  in  Essex  Street  and 
entered  it. 

The  room  was  small,  but  crowded.  The  walls, 
which  were  papered  in  green,  bore  a  few  framed 
prints  in  high  colors,  advertisements  of  various 
brands  of  beer  and  whisky.  All  about  were  small 
tables  at  which  blowsy  women  and  men  in  stained 
clothes  were  drinking. 

Luke  hesitated.  Nobody  had  questioned  his  en 
trance,  there  was  no  guard  and  no  password :  the  door 
hung  free;  but  now  his  startled  eye  could  not  see  a 
vacant  table,  and  he  knew  that  he  must  appear  an 
alien  to  this  place. 

Presently  a  nearby  woman  smiled  at  him.  She 
looked  to  be  about  fifty  years  old.  There  was  a 
mangy  peacock  feather  in  her  straw  hat,  which  was 
set  a-slant  of  dank  black  hair  touched  with  gray. 

"  Hello,  sweetheart,"  she  said.  "  Come  over 
here  a  minute."  Her  smile  was  toothless. 


30  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Shut  up,  Mame,"  somebody  else  commanded. 
"  You're  drunk." 

Luke  looked  at  the  man  that  had  spoken.  He 
was  sitting  alone  at  a  table  the  length  of  the  room 
away.  He  had  a  puffed  face,  red  from  liquor  and 
blue  from  an  unshaven  beard;  his  coat,  once  black, 
had  turned  green;  he  wore  no  collar,  and  a  part  of 
the  rim  of  his  greasy  derby-hat  was  torn  away. 

"  Shut  up,"  he  repeated.     "  You're  drunk." 

"  Thank  Gawd,"  the  woman  assented.  Her  ac 
knowledgment  of  the  accusation  was  fervent;  she 
returned  her  attention  to  the  glass  of  whisky  that 
stood  on  the  table  before  her. 

"  You  can  sit  here,  if  you  want  to,"  said  the  man, 
addressing  Luke,  and  nodding  at  a  chair  beside  him. 

Luke  crossed  the  room  and  took  the  chair.  The 
other  people  in  the  room  were  indifferent  to  his 
entrance  with  the  same  indifference  that  the  guests 
of  Mrs.  Ruysdael  had  shown.  The  woman  that 
had  invited  him  did  not  look  his  way;  even  the  man 
that  had  invited  him  remained  for  some  time  silent. 
Luke  ordered  a  glass  of  beer  from  an  aproned 
waiter,  who  came  with  a  tray  full  of  whisky  glasses 
in  one  hand,  and  five  foaming  beer-mugs  in  the 
fingers  and  thumb  of  the  other. 

"Will  you  have  a  drink  with  me?"  Luke  in 
quired  of  the  derelict  beside  him. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  31 

"  Sure,"  said  he,  and  Luke  noticed  that,  though 
he  did  not  cough,  his  voice  was  hoarse. 

They  gave  their  orders. 

u  And  perhaps  your  friend  would  have  one?" 
Luke  suggested. 

The  man  raised  his  rheumy  eyes. 

"What  friend?" 

"  The — the  one  that  spoke  to  me  when  I  came  in." 

"Who?  That  skirt?  I  never  saw  her  before 
in  my  life." 

Their  drinks  came,  and  the  men  drank  for  a 
while  in  silence. 

"What's  your  graft?"  asked  the  man  presently. 

u  I'm  a  lawyer,"  said  Luke.  He  was  first  proud 
of  the  answer  and  then  ashamed  of  himself  for  being 
proud  of  it. 

The  man  looked  at  him  dreamily  through  watering 
eyes. 

"  Quit  yer  kiddin',"  he  presently  remarked. 

"  I'm  not  kidding." 

"You're  a  lawyer?" 

"Yes." 

"  Well,  I'm  a  bum,"  said  the  man.  He  tilted  up 
his  bristled  chin;  his  seamed  throat  swelled;  sounds 
that,  because  they  were  not  speech,  Luke  took  to  be 
song,  came  from  his  throat.  He  sang: 


32  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"The  Spring  has  came,  I'm  just  out  o'  jail; 
I  haven't  any  money  an'  I  haven't  any  bail ! 
//a//eyloolyah,  I'm  a  bum — bum  ! 
Halleyloolyah,  bum  again! 
Halleyloolyah,  give " 

He  stopped  abruptly.  "  I'm  sorry  for  you"  he 
said. 

"  Why?  "  asked  Luke.  He  thought  the  sentiment 
of  that  song  as  horrible  as  the  creature  that  sang  it. 

"  Because  you're  all  tied  up  with  everything.  But 
me — there  ain't  nothin'  can  tie  me.  You  fellers  is 
in  jail  all  the  time  an'  don't  know  it;  I'm  only  in 
jail  when  you  fellers  can  ketch  me  and  put  me 
there." 

Luke  realized  that  he  had  found  a  philosopher 
who,  however  mistaken  in  his  deductions,  had  seen 
quite  as  much  of  the  world  as  Jack  Porcellis.  He 
attempted  the  vernacular. 

"  Is  this  a  bums'  joint?  "  he  inquired. 

The  philosopher  sneered. 

"  Naw,"  he  said.  "  It's  a  bum  joint,  but  it  ain't 
a  bums'  joint.  Too  much  class  for  me.  This  bunch  " 
— he  included  the  entire  company  with  a  wide  ges 
ture — "  is  all  in  the  same  jail  with  you.  If  they 
wasn't  here,  you'd  be  where  I  am." 

"  I  suppose  they  do  give  us  lawyers  cases,"  Luke 
granted;  "  but  they  seem  to  get  around  the  laws 
pretty  frequently:  they're  wide  open  to-night." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  33 

"  Sure  they  are.  See  that?  "  The  other  man  in 
dicated  the  waiter,  who  was  disappearing  into  the 
dark  vestibule  with  two  drinks  on  his  tray.  "  Them's 
for  the  cop  on  this  beat,  an'  a  vice-squad  cop  'at's 
with  him.  I'm  wise.  I  seen  Tony  (that's  the  boss 
o'  this  joint)  slip  them  a  fifty-dollar  bill  last  Sun 
day — protection  money." 

"  But  some  day,"  urged  Luke,  who  was  trying  to 
plumb  the  dark  pool  that  was  this  man's  mind, 
"  the  Mayor  or  the  District-Attorney  will  get  proof 
of  that  sort  of  thing — some  day  when  the  Mayor 
and  the  District-Attorney  are  honest  men " 

"  Don't  make  me  laugh,"  the  derelict  interrupted: 
"  me  lip's  cracked.  The  Mayor  and  the  District- 
Attorney's  got  to  get  elected,  whoever  they  are,  don't 
they?" 

Luke  supposed  so. 

"  Well,  then.  Tony  an'  his  kind  gets  the  votes. 
They  can't  elect  without  the  Tony  kind  says  so.  It's 
a  fair  trade.  An'  the  Mayors  an'  the  District-Attor 
neys  ain't  got  no  easy  thing  of  it,  neither.  Votes  costs 
money.  They've  got  to  get  the  money  from  the 
money-guys,  the  candidates  do,  an'  then  they've  got 
to  let  the  money-guys  kill  as  many  people  as  they 
wants  to  on  their  railroads  without  sendin'  them  to 
jail  for  it. — Have  another?" 

Luke  consented  to  another  drink. 


34  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  This  one's  on  me,"  said  the  other  man,  and  he 
paid  for  the  order.  "  No,  sir,"  he  went  on,  as  they 
were  finishing  their  second  drink  together,  "  there's 
only  two  sorts  o'  men  that  ain't  tied  up.  One  sort's 
me  that  knows  things  an'  ain't  afraid  to  starve 
(there's  lots  of  me)  ;  the  other  sort's  the  guys  at 
the  top  that  does  the  tyin',  an'  there's  only  a  few  of 
them,  with  the  King  as  the  boss-knotter." 

"  The  King?  "  repeated  Luke.     "  Who's  he?  " 

But  he  had  guessed  the  answer  before  the  derelict 
gave  it:  the  answer  was  the  man  that  Porcellis  con 
sidered  the  greatest  American.  .  .  . 

All  the  way  to  his  apartments  in  Thirty-ninth 
Street  that  night,  Luke's  feet  were  pounding  to  the 
wretched  derelict's  wretched  hymn : 

" //a//eyloolyah,  I'm  a  bum — bums 
Halleyloolyah,  bum  again !  " 


CHAPTER  II 

On  a  morning  of  that  same  April  in  a  large  rear 
room  on  the  twentieth  floor  of  a  Wall  Street  sky 
scraper,  three  men  were  seated  around  a  large  ma 
hogany  table.  They  were  talking  business.  Each 
man  had  his  own  offices  and  his  own  businesses^  but 
they  frequently  and  quietly  met  in  this,  the  inner 
office  of  one,  because  most  of  the  businesses  of  each 
were  closely  connected,  at  several  points,  with  the 
business  interests  of  all. 

There  was  nothing  unusual  about  the  outward 
appearance  of  the  public  actions  of  this  trio;  they 
were  apparently  but  three  units  of  the  legion  that 
makes  this  portion  of  New  York  a  city  by  day  and 
a  desert  by  night.  Each  had  come  downtown  in  his 
own  motor  that  morning,  defying  speed  laws  and 
traffic  regulations,  just  as  scores  of  his  business  neigh 
bors  had  done.  Each  had  descended  at  his  own 
offices,  passed  through  a  half-dozen  doors  guarded 
by  six  bowing  attendants,  and  proceeded  to  his  own 
desk  in  his  own  private  room,  precisely  as  a  small 
army  of  other  business  men  were  doing  at  the  same 
time  within  a  ra'dius  of  half  a  mile.  Each  looked  like 

35 


36  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

the  rest  of  that  army.  All  three  were  men  of  about 
the  average  in  height,  not  noticeably  either  above  or 
below  it,  and  inclined  to  bulkiness.  They  had  pale 
faces  and  close  mouths  and  quiet  eyes,  which  looked 
out  upon  the  world  from  under  bushy  brows  with 
glances  that  gave  the  lie  to  the  lethargic  indications 
of  the  little  pouches  of  loose  skin  below  their  lower 
lids.  Each  man  wore  a  flower  in  the  lapel  of  his 
dark  coat;  one  wore  a  white  waistcoat;  the  cropped 
mustache  of  one  was  black;  that  of  another  was 
touched  with  gray;  the  man  at  the  head  of  the  table 
was  clean-shaven. 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  was,  for  the 
most  of  the  time,  even  less  remarkable  than  his  com 
panions.  He  was  somewhat  shorter  and  heavier;  his 
abdomen  swelled  so  that  his  shoulders  were  some 
what  farther  from  the  table  than  were  those  of  his 
associates;  his  bushy  eyebrows  were  somewhat  more 
bushy;  his  pale  face  somewhat  paler;  his  calm  eyes 
somewhat  sharper,  yet  more  calm; — and  his  lips, 
in  addition  to  closing  tightly,  were  so  heavy  that 
the  compression  of  the  mouth  must  have  resulted 
from  a  habit  acquired  only  by  a  strong  and  long 
effort  of  the  will.  He  sat  with  his  great  hands  flat 
upon  the  surface  of  the  table,  his  thick  fingers  ex 
tended,  his  elbows  raised  at  right  angles  to  his  torso 
and  pointing  ceilingward.  His  chest  heaved  visibly, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  37 

but  his  breathing  was  inaudible.  His  eyes  were 
everywhere.  He  spoke  rarely,  but  when  he  did 
speak  it  was  as  if  he  darted  over  the  table,  seized 
something,  and  returned:  he  was  startlingly  brief 
and  sudden,  and  was  instantly  back  again  in  his  quiet 
watchfulness,  apparently  heavy,  unruffled,  slow. 

He  had  come  to  work  that  morning  with  his 
usual  promptness — the  moment  of  his  coming  never 
changed — and  in  his  usual  temper.  He  had  threaded 
the  maze  of  corridors  with  a  springing  step.  In  the 
mahogany-paneled  room  with  its  heavy  table  and 
arm-chairs,  and  its  one  decoration,  a  rare  engraving 
of  George  Washington,  hung  between  the  two  win 
dows  that  gave  the  place  its  only  chance  for  sun 
light,  he  found  on  his  desk,  in  a  corner,  a  clean 
blotter,  a  fresh  pen,  a  small  pad  of  cheap  paper  for 
memoranda,  and  nothing  else.  He  pressed  one  of 
a  row  of  worn  buttons  in  the  side  of  the  desk.  He 
was  ringing  for  his  private  secretary. 

The  secretary,  who  patently  tried  to  look  as  much 
like  his  master  as  possible,  and  succeeded,  entered,  a 
sheaf  of  open  letters  in  his  hand,  and  noiselessly 
closed  the  door  behind  him. 

"  Good-morning,"  said  his  master.  His  voice  was 
quite  low;  it  was  thin  and  cool,  but  his  words  fell 
quickly. 

"  Good-morning,"  said  the  secretary. 


38  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"What's  in  the  mail?" 

"  Not  much,  sir.  Only  about  twenty  things  that 
need  your  personal  attention." 

"About  twenty!"  The  master's  words  seemed 
to  leap  from  him  and  assault  the  secretary,  but  his 
face  was  set  like  a  plaster-cast  of  calm  and  his  tone 
was  even.  u  Do  you  mean  nineteen  or  twenty-one?  " 

The  secretary  was  too  used  to  this  manner  of 
speech  to  be  alarmed  by  it. 

'  Twenty-two,"  he  said.  He  handed  the  letters 
to  his  master. 

That  one  ran  them  over  with  a  quick  hand  and  a 
quicker  eye.  In  terse,  sharp  sentences,  he  directed 
his  secretary  how  to  reply  to  them,  the  latter  taking 
rapid  stenographic  notes  of  the  commands. 

'  You  have  turned  the  begging  communications 
over  to  Simpson  to  investigate?"  the  employer  in 
quired. 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  And  the  requests  for  contributions?" 

*  Yes,  sir.     There  was  one  for  a  new  hospital  at 
Akron.    The  rubber  people  have  given  five  thousand, 
and " 

*  Tell  Simpson  to  write  that  I'll  give  ten  thou 
sand  if  the  town  raises  ten  thousand  more." 

"  Very  well,  sir." 

"  Has  Mr.  Brinley  telephoned  from  Washing 
ton?" 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  39 

"  Yes,  sir.  He  says  he  is  to  take  breakfast  at 
the  White  House  to-morrow." 

"  What's  that?  He  was  told  to  arrange  it  for 
to-day." 

"  He  was;  but  he  said  he'd  got  word  from 
the " 

"  Never  mind.  To-morrow  will  do,  if  he  only 
keeps  his  word  this  time.  Wire  him:  'Right;  but 
positively  no  more  postponements.'  Use  the  code 
signature  and  send  from  somewhere  uptown, — Any 
thing  from  Albany?" 

"  Yes.  Senator  Scudder  says  to  tell  you  that  bill 
will  be  reported  to-day  and  rushed  through  before 
evening." 

"  Have  Conover  go  up  to  the  Astor  and  get  Scud 
der  on  the  'phone  and  say  that  the  bill  must  be 
passed  before  noon  recess.  The  Governor  will  sign 
it  immediately." 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  And  Conover  is  not  to  mention  names." 

"  Of  course  not,  sir." 

"Anything  else?" 

"  No — except  somebody  has  been  trying  to  get  you 
on  the  long-distance  wire  from  Hartford." 

'  That's  Sparks. — Run  over  to  the  corner  pay- 
station  and  call  up  the  legislative  building  at  Hart 
ford.  Get  Sparks  on  the  'phone.  Be  sure  it's  the 


40  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

right  man  you're  talking  to.  Tell  him  that  the  New 
York  gentleman  he  wanted  to  speak  to — just  that: 
the  New  York  gentleman  he  wanted  to  speak  to — 
is  out  of  town,  but  has  telegraphed  you  to  say  to  him 
it  is  all  right  for  him  to  go  ahead.  Got  that?  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Read  it." 

The  secretary  read  from  his  notes. 

"  Now,"  said  the  business  man,  "  get  Mr.  Riving- 
ton  and  Mr.  Hallett  on  your  own  'phone  and  ask 
them  if  they  can  find  it  convenient  to  come  around 
here  to  see  me  for  a  half-hour.  Tell  me  what  they 
say,  and  then  give  me  Atwood  and  the  other  brokers 
in  the  regular  order." 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"And,  Rollins " 

"Yes,  sir?" 

"  When  Mr.  Hallett  and  Mr.  Rivington  arrive, 
we  are  not  to  be  disturbed." 

The  secretary  went;  the  brokers  were  given  their 
orders,  and  then  came  L.  Bergen  Rivington  and 
George  J.  Hallett,  the  two  men  with  whom  this  third 
man  was  now  consulting. 

"  About  the  Manhattan  and  Niagara "  began 

Rivington.  He  had  a  way  of  moving  his  hands  nerv 
ously  when  he  spoke,  and  he  rarely  completed  a 
sentence. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  41 

Hallett,  who  was  the  man  in  a  white  waistcoat, 
stopped  chewing  his  cigar  to  ask: 

"  What  are  they  kickin'  about?  We  own  seventy- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  preferred  and  sixty  of  the  com 


mon." 


"  And  it  is  too  much,  I  think,"  said  Rivington. 
"  We  need  it  only  to  keep  from  unsettling  the  N.  Y. 
&  N.  J.  interests,  because Fifty-five  of  the  pre 
ferred  and  fifty-two  of  the  common,  perhaps,  but 
seventy-five  and  sixty " 

"  And,  now,"  chimed  Hallett,  "  this  little  fellow 
— what's  his  name? — the  president.  Oh,  yes: 
Dohan,  that's  it — starts  out  to  launch  a  new  stock- 
issue  to  bridge  the  river  five  miles  from  town  and 
come  into  New  York,  an'  all  without  as  much  as  say- 
in'  '  If  you  please  '  to  us !  We  ought  to  wreck  his 
damned  picayune  road  for  him;  that's  what  we  ought 
to  do." 

The  two  continued  their  indignant  comments. 
Every  little  while  they  paused  to  give  the  crouching 
man  at  the  head  of  the  table  a  chance  to  speak,  and 
more  often  they  looked  at  him  to  see  whether  he 
wanted  to  speak;  but,  though  his  eyes  were  always 
alert  to  meet  theirs,  he  did  not,  for  some  time, 
utter  a  word. 

"  Of  course,"  said  Rivington,  "  we  are  not  direct 
ors  of  the  road,  but  still " 


42  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Oh,  hell !  "  grunted  Hallett  disgustedly.  "  Did 
n't  you  just  say  between  us  we  owned  all  the  stock 
worth  ownin'  ?  We  ought  to  unload  and  smash  'em." 

u  You  may  be  right.     I  am  inclined  to  think " 

"  Right?  Of  course  I'm  right.  I'm  not  goin'  to 
be  bullied  by  a  handful  of  dummies  when  I  can  sell 
them  up  as  if  I  was  a  sheriff  closing  down  on  a  cross 
roads  grocery  store!  " 

"  They  certainly  are  impudent  and " 

"They're  beggars  on  horseback!  Wastin'  our 
money  like  this !  " 

"They  have We  should  tell  the  legisla 
ture " 

"  Gentlemen," — it  was  the  clear,  crisp  voice  of 
the  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  that  interrupted;  he 
spoke  in  a  tone  somewhat  different  from  that  in 
which  he  habitually  addressed  his  clerks  and  his 
brokers,  but  he  spoke  as  suddenly  and  with  all  the 
authority  that  he  used  toward  them — "  if  the  M.  & 
N.  comes  into  New  York,  it  will  not  take  one-half 
of  one  per  cent,  of  the  profits  away  from  our  other 
roads.  For  all  but  its  last  thirty-two  miles,  the  new 
line  taps  territory  new  to  us,  and  the  new  stock  will 
have  paid  for  itself,  and  have  paid  a  profit  too,  in 
five  years." 

Rivington  and  Hallett  looked  at  each  other.  The 
latter  took  his  cigar  between  his  fingers  and  folded 
his  arms. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  43 

"  What  do  we  care?  "  he  asked,  but  his  tone  had 
lost  the  assertiveness  that  had  marked  it  a  moment 
earlier.  The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  did  not 
answer  this  question  directly.  He  proceeded: 

"  Except  for  ourselves,  most  of  the  old  stock 
holders  are  poor  people.  They  need  the  money,  and 
the  old  holders  are  to  have  the  first  chance  at  the  new 
issue.  In  five  years,  then,  the  minor  stockholders  will 
have  realized  a  profit  on  their  investment;  so  shall 
we.  At  that  time  we  could  unload  without  hurting 
anybody  but  the  officials  that  have  defied  us.  Al 
ways  supposing,"  he  added,  u  that  the  management 
observe  a  proper  economy." 

Hallett's  eyes  burned. 

"  You're  right,"  he  said.  "  We  can  win  both 
ways  if  we  do  that.  The  road  will  be  bankrupt, 
and  we  can  buy  it  in." 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  did  not  smile. 
He  only  said: 

"  You  have  always  been  very  naive,  Hallett;  but 
I  did  think  you  would  have  seen  this  point  sooner." 

Rivington  at  length  cut  in: 

"  But  the  cost  of  getting  the  bill  through  the 
legislature " 

"  The  bill  will  pass  this  morning,"  said  the  man  at 
the  head  of  the  table.  "The  Governor  will  sign 
it  immediately." 


44  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

His  certainty  silenced  them  for  a  moment;  but 
Rivington,  whom  the  outside  world  pictured  as  a 
pirate,  was  still  timid. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but  the  expense  of  the  city 
ordinance " 

"  Oh,  we'll  take  care  of  that,"  grinned  Hallett. 

"  And  the  cost  of  construction " 

"  I  said,"  repeated  the  man  at  the  head  of  the 
table :  "  '  Always  supposing  the  management  observe 
a  proper  economy.'  " 

He  settled  back  in  his  chair.  He  seemed  to  con 
sider  the  subject  closed,  and  so,  presently,  did  his 
companions.  Within  five  minutes  they  had  left  him, 
and  he  was  ringing  for  Rollins. 

"  Rollins,"  he  said,  "  take  this  letter." 

The  secretary  seated  himself  at  the  far  end  of  the 
table. 

His  employer  walked  to  a  window  and  looked  out. 
His  hands  were  clasped  behind  him  now,  and  he  did 
not  turn  his  head  as  he  rapidly  dictated: 

"Robert  M.  Dohan.  (Send  it  to  his  house  address,  Rollins, 
and  mark  it  '  Confidential.')  I  understand  that  the  bill  of  which 
you  have  spoken  to  me  will  be  passed  and  become  a  law  to-day. 
I  have  just  seen  Messrs.  Hallett  and  Rivington  and  have  secured 
their  agreement  to  the  plan  outlined  in  my  personal  conversation 
with  you  last  week.  In  view  cf  the  favors  that  you  have  done 
me  in  the  past,  I  think  it  fair  to  tell  you,  for  your  own  use 
only,  (Underline  that,  Rollins),  that  my  friends  have  decided 
that  they  and  I  ought  to  do  what  you  thought  they  might  decide, 
viz. :  unload  at  the  end  of  five  years.  Considering  your  con- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  45 

templated  resignation  next  year,  this  will  not  affect  you,  except 
favorably  in  case  you  care  to  manipulate  your  own  holdings 
in  accordance  with  this  news. 

"(Paragraph)  I  note  what  you  say  about  the  estimate  sub 
mitted  by  the  construction-department;  also  the  letter  of  the 
steel-rail  manufacturers  which  you  inclosed,  in  which  they  say 
that  the  grade  I  suggested  might  not  wear  well.  I  think  their 
use  of  the  word  '  dangerous '  is  absurdly  exaggerated.  We  have 
used  this  grade  on  several  of  our  roads  and  feel  sure  from 
long  experience  that,  with  proper  repair-gangs,  it  will  wear  for 
five  years  as  well  as  the  best. 

"(Paragraph)  My  desire,  and  the  desire  of  my  associates,  is 
to  protect  the  interests  of  the  stockholders.  With  that  in  mind, 
I  should  state,  what  you  have  probably  already  gathered,  that 
we  feel  that  the  new  line  must  be  built  and  operated  with  all 
possible  economy.  Very  truly  yours." 

The  secretary  closed  his  book. 

"Is  that  all?"  he  asked. 

Without  turning,  his  employer  nodded,  and  Rol 
lins  left  the  room. 

In  the  corner  by  the  desk,  a  stock-ticker  was 
clicking  out  yards  of  tape  into  a  high  wicker  basket. 
The  man  that  had  just  given  the  M.  &.  N.  Railway 
permission  to  enter  New  York  started  to  walk  to 
the  ticker;  but  he  paused  again,  at  the  second  win 
dow,  to  look  down  on  the  thoroughfare  and  buildings 
below  him.  From  that  height  the  streets  of  the  city 
seemed  to  be  threads  leading  in  every  direction;  they 
seemed  to  radiate  from  the  building  in  which  the 
watcher  stood.  On  the  threads  black  dots  that  were 
hurrying  men  and  women  seemed  to  quiver  like 
entangled  flies. 


CHAPTER  III 

§  i.  The  legislature's  committee  made  its  report 
— the  legislature  was  heavily  Republican  that  year — 
declaring  that  no  wrong  had  been  done,  and  Luke 
accepted  this  verdict  as  a  proof  and  triumph  of 
right.  He  passed  his  examinations  and,  shortly  after 
Porcellis  sailed  for  Russia,  became  a  member  of  the 
staff  of  the  District-Attorney,  who  was  to  "  clean 
up  "  New  York. 

District-Attorney  Leighton  was  a  pleasant  man, 
still  young  at  forty,  who  had  a  plausible  and  engag 
ing  manner  supported  by  that  bluff  and  downright 
good-humor  which  passes  current  as  the  legal  tender 
of  honesty.  He  had  been  in  politics,  and  on  the  los 
ing  side,  since  his  twenty-first  year,  and  during  all  that 
time  he  was  fighting  toward  the  office  which  he  had 
ultimately  attained.  Even  his  relatives,  who  were 
people  of  so  high  a  position  that  they  regarded  vot 
ing  as  something  beneath  their  caste  and  would  rather 
be  pillaged  than  lay  hands  upon  the  pillagers,  had 
kept  him  at  a  distance  and  were  a  little  ashamed  of 
their  pride  in  his  success  now  that  he  had  secured  it. 
With  a  few  other  men,  all  his  elders,  he  had  found 

46 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  47 

his  party  a  ruined  fortress  and  rebuilt  it,  stone  by 
stone,  now  seeing  the  work  of  months  plundered  in  a 
day,  now  resisting  his  assailants  by  their  own  sort 
of  arms,  until  the  stronghold,  still  far  from  im 
pregnable  or  potent  to  command  the  entire  city, 
could  at  least  dominate  that  spot  beneath  its  guns 
on  which  he  had  been  able  to  take  up  his  present 
position. 

Under  him  Luke  went  cheerfully  to  work.  He 
was  at  first  disappointed  because  his  tasks  were 
minor  tasks  and  seemed  to  possess  only  the  most  dis 
tant  connection  with  the  great  crusade;  but  he  was, 
in  those  times,  as  modest  as  he  was  ardent,  and  he 
realized  that  he  was  still  in  his  novitiate.  He  tried 
petty  offenders  whose  crimes  were  so  insignificant 
that  he  frequently  found  it  hard  to  consider  them 
crimes  at  all,  and  he  was  often  too  sorry  for  the 
accused  to  be  glad  when  he  convicted  them.  The 
first  time  he  won  a  sentence,  which  was  by  no  means 
the  first  time  he  tried  a  case,  he  passed  a  sleepless 
night,  because  he  feared  that  the  defendant's  plea 
might  have  been  the  true  one.  It  was  long  thereafter 
before  he  could  exult  in  a  conviction  that  carried 
with  it  a  term  in  prison,  even  when  he  was  certain 
of  the  condemned  man's  guilt. 

The  other  members  of  the  staff,  more  experienced 
in  criminal  practice,  showed  no  compunctions.  They 


48  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

were  a  rather  jolly  lot  of  men,  ranging  in  age  from 
twenty-five  to  thirty,  with  a  cynical  tolerance  of  life 
and  a  tendency  to  regard  their  work  as  a  game  that 
everybody  played  solely  for  the  sake  of  winning  it, 
with  the  opposing  lawyers  as  the  rival  players  and 
with  the  accused  as  insensate  pawns.  Luke  forgave 
them  only  because  of  their  unanimous  and  unbounded 
loyalty  to  their  high-purposing  chief. 

"  I  got  that  case,"  declared  one  of  these  young 
men,  a  Larry  O'Mara,  when  he  came  through  Luke's 
little  office  one  afternoon  after  the  court  had  risen. 

'What  case?"  Luke  inquired. 

"  That  one  I  had  against  Burroughs — and  old 
Laurie  was  sitting,  too.  The  jury  was  only  out  ten 


minutes." 


O'Mara  was  pink  with  triumph. 

"  What  was  the  charge?"  asked  Luke. 

"  Larceny.  It  was  hard  work  to  make  out;  but 
the  fellow's  past  record  did  for  him.  I  got  that  in 
while  Burroughs  was  asleep  at  the  switch.  When 
he  did  object,  Laurie  ruled  against  me,  but  the  jury'd 
heard  it  all  right.  Laurie's  the  strictest  man  on 
the  bench,  and  Burroughs  is  about  the  cleverest 
criminal  lawyer  in  town." 

Luke  blushed  for  this  victor: 

"Was  the  man  guilty?" 

O'Mara's  eyes  were  first  wondering  and  then 
amused. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  49 

"  They  all  are,"  he  said.  "  If  he  didn't  do  this 
he  did  something  else  we  didn't  know  about — lots 
else.  They're  all  guilty." 

Luke  supposed  they  were,  but  he  could  not  under 
stand  his  associates'  desire  to  secure  convictions  for 
the  convictions'  sake. 

The  innocent  did  not  always  suffer,  nor  yet  the 
guilty.  Luke  was  not  directly  attached  to  the  homi 
cide  bureau,  the  name  applied  to  that  branch  of  the 
staff  regularly  employed  to  investigate  and  try  cases 
of  suspected  murder.  Nevertheless,  Leighton  be 
lieved  in  giving  his  men  some  chance  at  many 
branches  of  practice,  because  he  wanted  them  to  be 
what  he  called  "  all-round  criminal  practitioners " 
when  the  time  should  come  for  them  to  leave  his  serv 
ice,  and  so  Luke  was  once  or  twice  called  into  a  capi 
tal  trial.  On  one  such  occasion  he  was  helping  young 
Uhler.  Leighton  himself  had  tried  a  striker  named 
Gace  on  the  charge  of  shooting  and  killing  a  detec 
tive  during  a  strike-riot,  and  Gace,  greatly  to  the 
District-Attorney's  chagrin,  was  acquitted.  Some 
slight  evidence  adduced  at  the  Gace  trial  seemed  to 
point  to  another  striker,  Reardon,  and,  though  there 
was  small  hope  of  convicting  Reardon,  popular 
clamor  forced  Leighton  to  plead  for  a  true  bill 
against  him  and  bring  him  to  trial. 

4t  I  won't  touch  it  any  more,  though,"  laughed 


50  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Leighton.  "  Uhler,  you'll  have  to  take  it,  and  you 
might  as  well  have  Huber  with  you.  We're  bound 
to  lose,  and  so  I'm  going  to  give  my  assistants  a 
chance  to  bear  the  discredit.  That's  what  you  boys 
are  here  for." 

Smarting  under  his  chief's  prophecy,  Uhler,  one 
of  the  youngest  of  the  staff,  went  into  court  and 
fought  hard,  which  was  doubtless  the  intention  be 
hind  Leighton's  words.  His  enthusiasm  was  strong 
and  contagious.  He  convinced  himself  of  Rear- 
don's  guilt,  and  he  ended  by  convincing  Luke.  The 
proceedings,  indeed,  went  largely  in  the  State's  fa 
vor  until,  shortly  after  the  defense  had  opened  its 
case,  the  man  Gace,  who  had  previously  been  ac 
quitted,  was  called  to  the  stand  to  testify  to  some 
minor  detail.  His  examination  was  about  to  be  com 
pleted  when  he  quite  calmly  volunteered  the  state 
ment  that  it  was  he  who  had  done  the  killing. 

"  Cross-examine,"  said  the  defending  lawyer  and, 
covering  amazement,  sat  down. 

Uhler  looked  helplessly  at  Luke.  Luke,  now 
enough  of  a  lawyer  to  believe  that  this  was  no  more 
than  a  clever  ruse  to  secure  an  unjust  acquittal,  sprang 
to  his  feet  and  shook  an  angry  finger  under  the  nose 
of  the  witness  murderer,  whose  confession,  had  it 
been  expected,  would  have  been  prevented. 

"  So,"  he  cried,  "  not  satisfied  with  cheating  jus- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  51 

tice  in  your  own  case,  you  come  back  here  to  taunt 
it,  do  you?  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know  as  I'm  taunting  anything," 
replied  the  witness.  He  was  a  big  man  with  the 
frame  of  a  blacksmith  and  the  eyes  of  a  ruminating 
cow. 

"  Then,"  thundered  Luke,  "  you  really  mean  to 
tell  this  court  that  you  actually  killed  that  man?  " 

The  faintest  shadow  of  a  smile  brushed  the  mur 
derer's  lips. 

"They  buried  him,  didn't  they?  "  he  inquired. 

That  answer  lost  Luke's  case. 

§  2.  Luke's  enthusiasm  long  resisted  these  miscar 
riages  of  justice  and  the  undeniably  slow  progress  of 
his  chief  to  secure  indictments  against  the  Demo 
cratic  politicians  whose  drastic  punishment  Leighton 
had  promised  in  his  ante-election  speeches.  It  re 
sisted  even  the  callousness  of  the  participants  in  the 
legal  game,  and  the  discovery  that  the  best  minds  at 
the  Bar,  of  course  seeking  the  most  lucrative  field 
for  their  practice,  were  in  the  position  of  advisers  to 
the  great  financiers,  their  incomes,  which  far  exceeded 
those  of  their  more  active  fellows,  being  composed 
almost  entirely  of  the  annual  retaining  fees  and 
"  tips  "  for  speculation.  It  required  more  and  more 
resistance,  but  Luke  continued  to  hug  tightly  the 


52  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

faith  that  the  wrongs  of  the  world  could  be  set  right 
through  honest  laws  administered  by  honest  men. 

As  he  loved  his  work,  so  also  he  came  to  love  the 
scene  of  it.  The  vortex  of  the  city  fascinated  him. 
Broadway,  one  color  by  day  and  another  by  night, 
one  spot  of  color  uptown,  a  second  at  its  middle,  and 
a  third  below  the  street  that  lies  across  New  York 
like  a  gorged  but  devouring  anaconda;  the  dark  pas 
sages  full  of  tenements;  the  quiet  pavements  bor 
dered  by  prosperous  dwellings;  the  roar  of  every  sort 
of  business  and  the  crackle  of  all  sorts  of  pleasure; 
the  joy  and  suffering  eternally  intermingled,  yet  so 
intermingled  that  he  could  not  tell  which  caused  the 
other,  or  whether  they  were  independent;  the  whole 
tremendous  whirlpool  whirled  him,  a  straw  among 
uncounted  straws,  now  on  its  surface  and  now  sucked 
below  beyond  all  plummets'  soundings,  and  intoxi 
cated  him  by  its  dizzy  revolutions. 

He  knew  Fifth  Avenue,  Riverside  Drive,  and  Cen 
tral  Park.  Because  he  felt  it  his  duty,  he  learned  the 
outsides  of  the  houses  in  the  Italian  quarter,  the 
French  quarter,  the  Syrian  quarter.  He  walked  the 
Bowery  and  thought  that  he  understood  it.  From 
that  artery  of  America,  he  turned  a  corner  and  found 
himself  in  China,  in  crooked  streets  heavy  with  the 
smells  of  the  East,  among  shops  whose  signs  bore 
Oriental  characters,  among  crowds  of  impassive  yel- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  53 

low  faces — men  and  only  men — where  there  was  no 
sound  of  English  speech.  Once,  passing  the  door 
of  a  slum  mission,  he  saw  a  crowd  of  half-human 
things,  their  heads  sunk  upon  their  chests,  listlessly 
droning  a  popular  hymn  around  a  puffing  har 
monium:  on  one  side  of  the  mission  was  a  saloon 
and  on  the  other  a  shop  that  displayed  the  legend: 


BLACK  EYES 
PAINTED  HERE 


With  some  of  his  friends — for  he  made  many 
friends  both  in  the  office  and  out  of  it,  and  Mrs.  Ruys- 
dael  and  her  husband,  whom  he  finally  met,  were 
exceedingly  kind  to  him — he  went  on  a  tour  of  those 
cafes  that  called  themselves  Bohemian.  That  night 
he  descended  from  restaurants  where  one  drank 
champagne  and  heard  songs  by  vaudeville  perform 
ers  who  thus  earned  more  money  than  at  the  theaters 
which  they  had  deserted,  to  seats  in  shoddy  beer-halls 
where  there  was  dancing  by  women  too  old  or  too 
unskilled  to  continue  upon  the  stage;  and  on  the  way 
home  from  "  Little  Hungary,"  a  place  in  which  a 
dull  company  drank  strange  wines  to  the  music  of 
a  good  band,  the  motor  that  conveyed  his  party  crept 
under  smoking  naphtha  lamps  through  a  jumble  of 


54  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

push-carts  converted  into  bargain  counters,  and  past 
the  overcrowded  squalor  of  the  quarter  of  the  Rus 
sian  Jews. 

Poverty  hurt  him,  or  the  sight  of  poverty.  Some 
where  he  read  that  one  per  cent,  of  the  families  in 
the  United  States  owned  more  than  the  other  ninety- 
nine  per  cent.,  but  he  explained  this  by  the  theory  that 
the  one  per  cent,  had  created  the  wealth  that  they 
owned.  He  was  told  that  there  were  four  million 
paupers  in  the  country;  but  he  ascribed  their  condi 
tion  to  their  failure  to  take  advantage  of  a  republic's 
free  opportunities.  Somebody  said  that,  during  the 
past  winter,  seventy  thousand  New  York  children 
had  gone  hungry  to  the  public  schools;  Luke  was 
sure  that  the  schools  would  soon  supply  their  pupils 
with  free  meals.  From  a  report  of  the  New  Jersey 
Department  of  Charities  that  came  into  his  hands, 
he  learned  that,  in  New  Jersey,  one  person  in  every 
two  hundred  and  six  of  the  population  was  a  ward 
of  the  State;  but  his  reflection  was  only  that  New 
Jersey  must  be  badly  governed.  His  heart  ached 
over  what  he  saw;  but  his  intellect  satisfactorily  ex 
plained  all  hearsay  evidence.  He  could  go  out  to 
Ellis  Island  and,  listening  to  its  thousands  of  immi 
grants  prattle  their  hopes  in  forty-three  languages 
and  dialects,  could  share  their  hopes.  Evil  adminis 
trators  had  hurt  the  country  by  overturning  the  pur- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  55 

pose  of  its  founders;  the  remedy  lay  in  a  return  to 
first  principles. 

Already  in  men  of  the  Leighton  type  and  in  their 
works,  he  saw  signs  of  the  revival.  He  had  more 
than  one  occasion  to  visit  the  Children's  Court.  Its 
quarters  near  Third  Avenue  were  cramped,  but  it 
was  soon  to  be  fittingly  housed,  and  already  here 
especially  adapted  magistrates,  acting  as  judge,  jury, 
and  parent,  conducted  in  kindly,  quiet,  and  colloquial 
fashion  the  cases  of  fourteen  thousand  children  in  one 
year.  These,  all  of  them  under  the  age  of  sixteen, 
were  no  longer  herded  with  mature  criminals  that 
completed  their  education  in  vice,  though  their  of 
fenses  ranged  from  mere  waywardness  to  burglary. 
Their  judges  were  patient  and  sympathetic  men. 
One  was  the  president  of  a  society  called  the  Big 
Brothers,  the  duty  of  whose  members  was  to  act  in 
fraternally  helpful  fashion  to  boys  less  fortunate 
than  they  themselves  had  been;  and  some  of  the 
women  probation  officers  of  this  court  belonged  to  a 
similar  organization  known  as  the  Big  Sisters.  There 
were  twenty-six  probation  officers,  some  men  and 
some  women,  and  into  their  care  were  given  all  the 
little  offenders  for  whom  the  court  entertained  any 
hope  of  reformation. 

Luke  concluded  that  the  public  schools,  because 
of  bettered  conditions,  were  turning  out  fewer  candi- 


56  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

dates  for  the  Children's  Court  than  ever  before.  He 
saw  with  high  hope  the  Washington  Irving  High 
School  for  Girls,  the  result  of  an  agitation  begun  by 
pupils.  Here  was  a  building  eight  stories  high,  and 
Luke,  with  the  American  love  for  size  and  numbers, 
wrote  enthusiastically  home  to  his  sister  that  it  was 
the  largest  school  in  the  world. 

"  It  cost  half  a  million  dollars,"  he  told  her;  "  it 
has  a  hundred  and  sixty  rooms  and  it  holds  six  thou 
sand  pupils.  Think  of  that!  Six  thousand, — not 
your  pasty-faced,  moping  diggers  either,  but  all 
noisy,  laughing,  healthy  girls.  The  equipment  is 
wonderful — just  wonderful:  you  girls  from  the  old 
Americus  High  School  would  think  you  were  in 
Heaven  if  you  came  here.  There  are  two  big  restau 
rants,  chemical  and  physical  laboratories,  a  conserva 
tory,  a  zoological  garden  and  a  roof-garden,  and 
laundries.  There's  a  regular  theater — stage,  scenery, 
and  all  that — a  store,  a  bank,  a  housekeeping  depart 
ment,  and  an  employment  bureau.  They  have  an 
orchestra,  and  they  dance.  There  are  nurseries  with 
real  babies  in  them — babies  that  can  cry — and  there  is 
a  five-room  model  house,  a  hospital,  and  a  section 
where  they  train  nurses.  They  use  all  these  things 
really  to  teach,  and  this  is  in  addition  to  languages 
and  the  usual  unpractical  stuff.  They  teach  libra 
rians'  work,  shorthand,  typewriting,  bookbinding, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  57 

costume-designing,  and  dressmaking.  Why,  Jane, 
the  girls  are  taught  to  make  their  own  clothes.  Every 
girl  is  expected  to  make  her  own  graduation  dress, 
and  only  a  few  of  the  dresses  cost  more  than  a  dol 
lar  apiece.  I'll  bet  you  wouldn't  like  that  part  of 
it!" 

Even  his  social  life  served  subtly  to  confirm  him, 
during  this  period,  in  the  opinions  he  had  brought  to 
it.  He  mistrusted  combinations  of  capital,  because 
he  thought  they  tended  to  restrain  honest  trade,  but 
he  believed  such  combinations  could  properly  and 
effectively  be  curbed  by  legislation,  and  he  had  a 
fine  respect  for  such  of  his  acquaintances  as  had  made 
their  own  money  by  building  up  their  own  indus 
tries.  He  doubted  certain  men  in  whose  hands  lay 
the  administration  of  government,  but  he  was  sure 
that  the  cure  for  this  was  the  election  of  honorable 
men.  He  brought  to  New  York,  and  long  retained, 
what  he  called  a  muscular  Christianity  (he  had  read 
Kingsley),  and,  under  its  control,  he  sought  a  rem 
edy  for  the  world's  evils  that  he  could  synthesize 
with,  a  respect  for  authority  and  an  acceptance  of  the 
dogma  that  the  individual  man  is  nothing  and  the 
omnipotent  Deity  everything. 

He  used  often  to  be  invited  to  dinners  at  the  Ruys- 
daels'  when  there  was  no  other  guest,  because  Ruys- 
dael  liked  this  earnest  lad  and  enjoyed  long  evening 


58  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

talks  with  him.  On  one  such  occasion,  his  host,  little, 
sallow,  with  almond  eyes  that  gave  him  a  strangely 
Japanese  appearance,  fell  to  talking  of  these  ques 
tions  while  the  two  men  sat  over  a  glass  of  port — 
for  Ruysdael  liked  the  old-fashioned  English  custom 
of  after-dinner  port — in  the  candle-lit,  oak-paneled 
dining-room. 

"  I  can't  understand,"  said  Ruysdael,  "  the  short 
sightedness  of  these  really  honest  men  who  call  prop 
erty  a  crime." 

"  They  call  it  that,"  said  Luke,  "  because  it's  the 
result  of  profit." 

"Yes,  but  what's  profit?" 

"  Selling  dear  what  you  buy  cheap,  I  suppose." 

"  Yes,  that's  one  way  of  putting  it,  but  it's  really 
wages.  It's  the  wages  that  the  employer  draws  for 
his  executive  ability:  he  must  be  paid  for  his  work 
if  his  employees  are  paid  for  theirs.  It's  the  fair 
return  that  he  gets  for  the  risk  he's  run  in  starting 
his  business,  and  it's  his  reward  for  his  years  of 
saving  up  his  money  till  he  had  enough  to  start  that 
business." 

Luke  agreed.. 

"  Of  course,"  said  he,  "  we  don't  want  the  man 
that's  done  these  things  to  use  his  power  so  as  to 
prevent  other  men  from  doing  them,  but  we  haven't 
any  right  to  take  from  him  what  he's  earned  or  to 
stop  him  from  going  on  earning  it." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  59 

In  much  Ruysdael's  manner,  Luke's  father,  during 
Luke's  visits  to  his  home  in  Americus,  would  talk  of 
government.  Government,  by  which  he  meant  the 
particular  form  of  government  adopted  by  the 
United  States,  was  one  of  the  few  topics  that  could 
move  the  Congressman  from  his  characteristic  reti 
cence.  He  scorned  the  tyranny  of  Russia  and  the 
English  make-shift  of  a  constitutional  monarchy.  In 
the  United  States  the  people  could  rule;  the  means 
were  provided;  if  they  failed  now  and  then,  it  was 
for  a  brief  time  only.  To  Mr.  Huber  the  majority 
was  as  infallible  in  matters  of  government  as,  in  mat 
ters  of  faith,  the  Pope  is  to  a  devout  Catholic,  and 
the  hope  of  the  majority  lay  in  that  party  which  had 
freed  the  negro  from  slavery  and  saved  the  country 
from  disruption. 

To  these  ideals  Luke  was  true.  He  saw  the  rotten 
ness  of  Tammany  rule  in  New  York  and  knew  it  for 
a  symptom  of  the  disease  that  made  a  national  dan 
ger  of  the  entire  rank  and  file  of  the  Democrats;  he 
saw  the  integrity  of  Leighton,  and  accepted  it  as 
a  true  token  of  Republican  virtue.  He  wanted  the 
government  restored  to  its  pristine  simplicity,  wealth 
curbed  of  its  newly  developed  predatory  instincts, 
religion  restored  to  its  place  in  the  daily  thought 
and  conduct  of  man. 


60  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

§  3.  Leighton's  announced  intention  to  "  clean 
up  "  New  York  was  proving,  nevertheless,  a  slow 
process.  He  had  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  evi 
dence  against  the  Democratic  politicians  whose  scalps 
he  had  promised  to  hang  to  the  belt  of  the  public. 
Grand  Juries  had  a  way  of  including  enough  partisans 
of  these  politicians  to  prevent  the  finding  of  true 
bills.  When  true  bills  were  found,  petty  juries  gen 
erally  contained  enough  Democrats  to  persuade  the 
other  jurors  to  acquit  or  to  hold  out  for  a  disagree 
ment.  Even  when  convictions  were  secured,  the 
appeals  had  to  be  argued  before  appellate  courts 
composed  of  men  that  owed  their  positions  to  friends 
of  the  appellants. 

"  It's  rotten  luck,"  said  Leighton,  "  but  I  believe 
they've  got  us  scotched.  We've  tried  seven  cases, 
four  of  them  twice  and  two  three  times;  we've  had 
our  hands  full  with  appeals,  and  the  only  one  of  the 
lot  that  we've  sent  to  jail  is  a  peanut  politician  from 
Second  Avenue  who  doesn't  control  ten  votes." 

"  Yes,"  said  O'Mara,  "  and  they  let  him  go  be 
cause  they  believed  he  was  getting  ready  to  go  back 
on  them  next  election." 

"  We've  got  to  begin  lower  down,"  concluded 
Leighton,  "  and  work  up." 

He  began  immediately.  He  found  that,  in  viola 
tion  of  the  law,  cocaine  was  sold  at  scores  of  places 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  61 

on  the  East  Side,  and  that  the  use  of  the  drug  was 
spreading  alarmingly.  Against  these  retailers  he  pro 
ceeded  with  all  the  vigor  he  had  shown  in  his  larger 
and  less  productive  efforts.  Evidence  to  convict  the 
sources  of  supply  was  hard  to  get,  since  those  sources 
were  high  in  Tammany  politics,  but  small  sellers  and 
street  peddlers  were  rushed  to  jail  with  such  com 
mendable  speed  that  the  trade  soon  seemed  abolished. 

Luke  appeared  in  some  of  these  cases,  and  won 
most  that  he  appeared  in.  He  had  been  feeling  the 
chill  of  disappointment,  but  this  gave  him  fresh 
courage.  One  day,  when  Uhler  was  on  vacation  and 
Luke  was  taking  the  work  of  the  absent  man,  he 
thought  he  saw  the  chance  to  approach  "  the  people 
higher  up,"  which  they  had  all  been  waiting  for. 

A  gang-leader  named  Zantzinger  had  been  dancing 
with  his  wife  at  a  ball  on  the  second  floor  of  a  house 
in  Avenue  A.  As  he  waltzed  past  the  door  leading 
to  the  back  stairs,  a  friend  looked  in  and  called 
Zantzinger  aside. 

"  Excuse  me  a  minute,"  said  the  gangster  to  his 
wife. 

He  left  her  and  went  to  his  friend. 

"Well?"  he  demanded. 

"  Butch  Dellitt's  down  there,"  warned  his  friend, 
nodding  toward  the  door.  "  His  crowd's  after  you 
'cause  they  say  you  piped  off  Dutch's  brother-in-law's 


62  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

poolroom  to  the  fly  cops.  He  says  he's  goin*  to 
croak  you." 

"Where  is  he?" 

"  He'll  be  'round  front  when  you  come  out" 

"  Where  is  he  now?" 

"  Down  back." 

"Down  these  stairs?" 

The  friend  nodded. 

Zantzinger  walked  to  his  wife. 

"  I've  got  a  little  business  below,"  he  explained. 
"  Wait  here:  I'll  be  right  back." 

He  opened  the  door  and  descended  the  stairs.  As 
he  went,  he  drew  his  revolver.  Dellitt  was  standing 
in  the  doorway,  with  his  back  to  the  stairs,  smoking 
a  cigarette.  Without  warning,  Zantzinger  shot  him 
through  the  head.  Then  he  returned  to  the  ball 
room,  apologized  to  his  wife  for  leaving  her  so  hur 
riedly,  and  resumed  his  interrupted  dance. 

This  was  the  story  that  came  to  the  homicide 
bureau.  Luke  took  it  at  once  to  Leighton. 

"  And  this  man  Zantzinger,"  he  reminded  the 
District-Attorney,  "  is  the  right-hand  man  of  the 
Tammany  leader  in  that  ward." 

"Who  saw  him?"  asked  Leighton. 

"  Three  men  on  the  street." 

"Got  their  names?" 

"  We  can  get  them." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  63 

"  Is  the  coroner  on  the  case  ?  " 

Luke  thought  he  was. 

Leighton  shrugged. 

"  Then  that'll  be  the  end  of  it,"  he  said. 

Luke  could  not  credit  this. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Leighton  wearily,  "  I  mean  it. 
By  the  time  he's  done  with  the  case,  he'll  see  to  it 
nobody  knows  anything.  Why,  man  alive,  that 
coroner's  the  cousin  of  the  ward  leader." 

"  But  you'll  try?  "  urged  Luke.    "  You'll  fight?  " 

Leighton  swung  back  in  his  swivel-chair.  He  put 
his  feet  on  his  desk  and  clasped  his  hands  behind  his 
head. 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  I  won't.  What's  the  use?  I'm 
getting  tired  of  trying  to  do  things  with  all  the  peo 
ple  taking  no  interest  and  a  Democratic  Mayor  and 
Police  Commissioner  fighting  against  me."  He  spoke 
like  a  man  at  last  driven  to  declare  something  he  has 
long  striven  to  conceal.  "  If  ever  I  want  to  be  re- 
elected,"  he  continued,  "  this  office  has  got  to  be 
more  careful  about  taking  up  cases  that  are  lost  to 
begin  with." 

§  4.  Luke  fought  hard  with  the  ugly  doubt  this 
incident  raised.  He  tried  to  convince  himself  that 
Leighton  had  spoken  only  in  a  moment  of  passing 
weariness  and  discouragement;  but  he  daily  found 


$4  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

this  endeavor  more  difficult.  What  suddenly  turned 
his  mind  to  other  things  was  the  news  that  an  aunt, 
his  father's  widowed  sister  who  lived  in  Philadelphia, 
had  died,  leaving  him  a  hundred  thousand  dollars. 


CHAPTER  IV 

§  i.  Luke  had  never  expected  to  be  possessed  of 
so  much  money.  His  father's  income  was  comfort 
able,  but  it  was  well  understood  that  the  family 
lived  somewhat  beyond  it,  and  that  what  might  be 
left  at  the  Congressman's  death  would  go  to  his 
widow  for  life  and,  after  that,  to  Luke's  sister  Jane. 
The  Philadelphia  aunt  had  inherited  her  fortune 
from  her  husband,  and  her  affection  for  her  relatives 
was  generally  supposed  to  be  slight.  Luke,  conse 
quently,  found  himself  in  a  position  for  which  he 
was  totally  unprepared. 

"  I  suppose,"  he  said  to  Ruysdael,  to  whom  he 
went  for  advice,  "  that  I  ought  to  invest  it." 

"  You  ought  to  lose  no  time,"  counseled  Ruysdael. 
"  A  hundred  thousand  dollars  is  too  much  for  a 
young  man  to  have  at  his  call  in  New  York.  It's 
not  enough  to  spend,  and  it's  too  much  to  gamble 
with  in  the  bucket-shops." 

Ruysdael  thought  he  knew  a  safe  investment. 

"  There's  a  man  named  Forbes,"  he  said — "  Wal 
lace  K.  Forbes,  who  came  to  the  offices  of  our  estate 
the  other  day  when  I  happened  to  be  there.  He 

65 


66  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

wanted  to  borrow  just  the  amount  you  name,  and  my 
agent  says  it's  a  good  thing;  but  we  happened  to  have 
a  bigger  one  on  hand.  His  concern's  an  old  one,  one 
of  the  oldest  American  firms  in  its  line;  this  man's  the 
third  generation  of  his  family  to  be  in  it,  so  it's  well- 
established  and  has  the  good  old-fashioned  element 
of  family  pride  behind  it.  Nowadays,  you  don't 
find  many  men  regard  their  businesses  the  way  an 
English  landed  gentleman  used  to  regard  his  estates 
and  his  family  honor;  but  Forbes  seems  to  be  an  ex 
ception." 

"  What  is  the  business  ?"  asked  Luke. 

"  Ready-made  clothing,  and  well  made,  too,  I'm 
told." 

"  Still,  he  does  need  money." 

"  Yes,  but  you  couldn't  get  in  if  he  didn't  need  it. 
He  only  wants  it  to  complete  some  improvements 
he's  begun.  He's  perfectly  well-grounded,  but  I 
suppose  he  has  to  keep  up  with  the  progress  of  the 
trade.  Of  course,  that  very  element  of  family  pride 
might  disincline  him  to  give  an  outsider  any  hold 
on  the  business,  but  if  you  want  me  to,  I'll  have  Croy 
— that's  the  man  that  runs  our  estate  for  us — look 
into  the  situation  and  sound  Forbes." 

Luke,  after  some  satisfactory  inquiries  in  other 
quarters,  acquiesced  in  this  proposal.  All  the  re 
ports  were  good,  and  that  of  Herbert  Croy,  the 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  67 

shriveled  Ruysdael  lawyer,  was  especially  rosy. 
Forbes  expressed  his  willingness  to  meet  Luke,  and 
Luke  called  at  the  offices  of  the  R.  H.  Forbes  & 
Son's  factory  in  Brooklyn. 

The  present  head  of  the  firm  was  a  grave  man  with 
a  direct  and  unassuming  manner.  His  aquiline  nose 
gave  his  face  the  air  of  strength,  and  his  mustache 
and  the  hair  about  his  temples  being  slightly  touched 
with  gray,  he  seemed  sober  and  conservative.  He 
sat  at  a  plain  roll-top  desk,  in  a  room  simply  fur 
nished,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  coming  at  once  to 
business. 

"  Would  you  like  to  walk  through  the  place?  "  he 
inquired,  when  he  had  told  Luke  much  of  what  Ruys 
dael  had  already  said. 

"  I  suppose  I  ought  to,"  smiled  Luke;  "  though 
of  course  I  don't  know  enough  about  the  business  to 
appreciate  what  you  show  me." 

Forbes  smiled  sadly. 

"  You  are  no  different,  then,"  he  said,  "  from 
most  modern  investors,  or,  for  the  matter  of  that, 
most  owners  of  businesses  either.  In  these  times  the 
average  president  of  a  company  thinks  he  earns  his 
salary  by  manipulating  its  stock;  he  seldom  knows 
anything  about  the  work  that  makes  the  stock  mar 
ketable.  Our  firm  isn't  like  that." 

Under  Forbes's  care,  Luke  was  accordingly  taken 


68  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

through  the  factory,  with  which,  he  noted,  the  office 
of  the  chief  administrative  was  in  close  touch.  He 
was  shown  the  room  where  the  cloth  manufacturers 
brought  their  products;  the  scales  to  weigh  the  ma 
terial;  the  windmill-like  machine  that  spread  the 
offered  fabric  on  its  wide  arms  and,  turning  at  the 
will  of  the  expert  buyers,  displayed  its  burden  before 
the  examiners  in  a  strong  north  light;  the  long  boards 
on  which,  having  been  re-rolled,  the  cloth,  once  its 
quality  had  been  thus  determined,  was  again  uncoiled, 
an  ingenious  contrivance  attached  to  the  uncoiling- 
wheel  stamping  its  measurements  at  every  fifth  revo 
lution. 

"  We  have  to  be  careful,"  Forbes  explained. 
"  Business  isn't  so  honest  as  it  once  was,  and  if  the 
cloth-makers  could  gain  an  inch  in  ten  yards,  they'd 
do  it." 

The  factory,  which  closed  the  end  of  a  street, 
was  built  about  four  sides  of  a  small  square,  and  the 
center  of  this  square  was  occupied  by  a  large  room 
with  overhead  ventilation  and  lighting,  the  glass 
fluted  and  sloping  as  the  ribs  of  a  Venetian  blind  may 
be  made  to  slope,  so  that,  in  summer,  the  sun's  rays 
would  be  tempered  to  the  workers  under  it.  Here, 
at  the  tables  nearest  the  entrance,  men  were  employed 
at  designing  patterns  of  cardboard  and  working,  amid 
busy  calculations,  with  rulers  and  T-squares,  like  so 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  69 

many  architects'  draughtsmen.  From  them  the  com 
pleted  patterns  were  taken  to  other  tables  at  which 
they  met  the  cloth  accepted  in  the  first  room,  other 
workmen  tracing  the  designs  in  chalk  upon  pieces  of 
the  cloth.  The  problem  of  these  second  workers, 
Forbes  explained,  was  to  arrange  the  designs  in  such 
a  way  that  almost  no  shred  of  cloth  was  wasted. 
Luke  observed  that  they  solved  it  with  astonishing 
skill;  and,  as  each  piece  was  completed,  a  ticket  was 
roughly  sewn  on  it  with  written  directions  for  its 
further  progress  and  blanks  to  be  filled  in  by  the  sig 
nature  of  each  worker  responsible  for  its  future  steps. 
Then  came  what  to  Luke  was  the  most  wonderful 
part  of  the  work.  Nineteen  pieces  of  unmarked 
cloth  to  be  made  into  suits  of  the  same  style  as  that 
on  which  the  chalk  pattern  had  been  outlined,  were 
laid  under  that  piece  and  the  whole  bundle  given 
to  a  man  at  a  large  table.  Through  a  slit  in  the 
center  of  this  table,  a  knife  of  incredible  strength  and 
keenness  plunged  rapidly  up  and  down.  The  man  in 
charge  forced  the  bundle  against  the  knife,  deftly 
pushing  it  forward,  so  that  the  blade  followed  the 
lines  drawn  upon  the  top  piece,  and  in  three  minutes 
a  score  of  suits  of  clothes  were  cut  into  their  various 
parts  and  were  being  sorted  and  ticketed  and  signed 
for  waiting  boys  to  carry  them  to  the  sewing- 
machines. 


70  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Those  patterns  look  like  the  parts  of  a  jig-saw 
puzzle,"  said  Luke,  "  and  that  knife  looks  like  a 
cross  between  a  jig-saw  and  the  guillotine." 

"  It  cuts  twenty  suits  at  a  time,"  said  Forbes 
gravely,  "  and  the  bottom  one  doesn't  vary  the  thir 
tieth  of  an  inch  from  the  one  on  top." 

"Twenty  suits!  "  Luke  wanted  to  rub  his  eyes. 
*  Yes ;  but  the  inventor  is  still  at  work  on  the 
knife.  We  hope  soon  to  get  one  that  will  do  three 
dozen." 

At  each  corner  of  the  building  was  an  elevator  and 
a  stairway,  the  latter  walled  in  so  to  serve  as  a  fire- 
escape.  Forbes  took  Luke  up  one  of  these  stairways, 
a  broad  and  easy  flight  of  which  the  corners  at  each 
landing  were  protected  by  curved  wainscoting  to 
prevent  jamming  in  case  of  panic. 

The  three  floors  above  ground  contained  the  rooms 
in  which  the  sewing  was  done  and  one  room  known 
as  the  matching-room.  All  seemed  well  lighted  and 
well  aired  and  well  protected  by  the  overhead  pipes 
of  an  automatic  sprinkling-plant. 

In  the  matching-room  girls  especially  trained  to 
the  task  selected,  from  vast  quantities  of  samples, 
the  fitting  shades  of  thread  and  buttons  best  adapted 
to  the  different  bundles  of  cut  fabric  brought  by  ele 
vators  from  the  cutting  department  below.  Beside 
them  were  four  other  girls,  who  worked  at  a  con- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  71 

trivance  in  which,  when  covered  buttons  were  re 
quired,  an  uncovered  button,  a  piece  of  tin  and  a  bit 
of  cloth  were  inserted,  a  lever  pulled  and  the  three 
factors  withdrawn  ready  clamped  together  and  com 
plete  for  use.  From  here,  after  the  tickets  had  been 
signed,  and  the  necessary  further  directions  added  to 
them,  the  cloth  was  sent  on  to  the  sewing-rooms. 

Luke  found  those  sewing-rooms  crowded  with  ma 
chines  of  possibilities  that  he  had  heretofore  never 
dreamed  machines  could  realize;  machines  horrible 
because  they  seemed  half-human,  and  diabolically 
intelligent;  machines  that  not  only  moved  up  and 
down  in  the  manner  of  the  old  foot-pumped  sewing- 
machine  in  the  second  floor  back  of  his  home  in 
Americus,  but  twirled  and  danced  over  the  cloth 
pressed  under  them  by  women  feeding  them  as  a 
frightened  keeper  in  a  menagerie  might  feed  an  angry 
beast.  They  were  all  of  them  run  by  steam  or  gaso 
line,  and  Forbes  told  Luke  that  they  were  all  made  by 
one  trust,  which  owned  all  the  patents.  There  were 
different  machines  for  every  kind  of  sewing,  for  every 
loop  that  could  be  required  of  the  thread:  machines 
for  hemming;  machines  for  the  cord-stitch,  the  lock 
stitch,  the  chain-stitch,  and  the  damask-stitch;  ma 
chines  for  sewing  the  cloth  together,  for  sewing  the 
lining,  for  sewing  the  trouser-seams;  and  there  was 
one  machine,  the  needle  of  which  moved  in  dizzy 


72  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

zigzag,  for  sewing,  on  a  sort  of  herring-bone  design, 
the  stiffening  material  into  coats. 

Next  Luke  was  shown  a  room  in  which,  on 
benches  a  foot  from  the  floor,  beside  tables  six  inches 
high,  sat  rows  of  intent  little  girls,  their  arms  flying 
like  flails  as  they  stitched  the  shoulders  into  the  coats, 
and  still  another  row  in  which  still  other  girls,  their 
arms  flying  in  a  similar  manner,  sewed  buttons  on 
coats,  waistcoats,  and  trousers — the  only  two  proc 
esses  that  invention  was  as  yet  unable  wholly  to 
deliver  over  to  machinery.  Lastly,  there  was  a  half- 
floor  given  to  what  at  first  looked  like  linotype  ma 
chines,  and  at  these  sat  brawny  women  who  passed 
over  the  coat-shoulders  long  flat-irons,  each  heated 
by  flexible  tubes  attached  to  it  and  reminiscent,  for 
Luke,  of  those  terrible  instruments  that,  immediately 
revolving,  grind  the  heart  and  lungs  out  of  a  pa 
tient's  teeth. 

Forbes  exhibited  it  all  with  a  quiet  pride.  He 
said  there  was  no  work  sent  out  of  the  factory,  and 
so  no  "  sweating";  the  factory  was  a  union  shop; 
there  had  never  been  but  one  strike,  and  that  one 
was  speedily  adjusted  by  arbitration. 

Luke  was  impressed.  He  secured  favorable  re 
ports  from  a  financial  agency  and  from  a  firm  of 
expert  accountants.  Then  he  invested  his  fortune 
in  R.  H.  Forbes  &  Son. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  73 

§  2.  About  this  time,  the  United  States  Senate  hap 
pened  to  be  investigating  itself  and  unavoidably 
stumbled  upon  a  witness  whose  testimony  filled  all 
the  newspapers  for  several  weeks  and  remained  a 
matter  of  public  comment  for  quite  two  months. 
Perhaps  because  he  had  fallen  out  with  his  em 
ployers,  this  witness  insisted  upon  telling  how  he  had 
for  ten  years  been  hired  by  a  combination  of  the 
ruling  corporations  to  influence  national  legislation. 
Five  hundred  letters  and  telegrams  substantiated  his 
assertions;  he  gave  dates  and  mentioned  places;  the 
names  of  popular  idols  fell  from  his  lips  with  in 
finite  carelessness,  and  the  idols  broke  as  their  names 
fell. 

Speaking  in  unimpassioned  detail,  the  informer 
showed  how  his  activities  had  covered  the  entire 
country  and  included  the  chiefs  of  both  the  large 
parties  with  a  splendid  catholicity.  He  had  bought 
the  services  of  labor  leaders  to  end  strikes,  had 
broken  up  unions  by  purchasing  information  from 
their  members,  and  had  ended  one  dispute  by  having 
himself  appointed  a  member  of  its  arbitration  board. 
He  had  operated  in  congressional  campaigns  through 
out  the  Union,  and  he  told  how  he  had  bought  the 
defeat  at  the  polls  of  members  of  Congress  that 
sought  re-election  after  having  opposed  the  corporate 
interests  at  Washington,  and  how  he  had  spent  thou- 


74  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

sands  of  the  trusts'  dollars  in  electing  candidates 
who,  personally  or  through  their  bosses,  promised 
that  they  would  support  a  high  tariff  and  prevent 
the  passage  of  laws  too  kindly  to  the  working  class. 
He  had  hired  congressional  clerks  and  pages,  the 
former  to  betray  what  advance  information  came 
to  them,  the  latter  to  pick  up  valuable  gossip.  He 
had  the  secretaries  of  Congressmen  on  his  salary- 
roll  when  he  could  not  buy  or  defeat  their  masters 
or  when,  having  bought  those  masters,  he  feared 
treachery.  He  had  secured  the  appointment  of  those 
legislators  in  his  pay  to  important  committees,  and 
he  had,  he  said,  planned  and  secured  the  establish 
ment  of  a  national  tariff  commission  for  the  benefit 
of  the  powers  he  served.  Those  powers  were  headed 
by  the  man  that  Jack  Porcellis  likened  to  Shakespeare 
and  that  the  derelict  in  the  Essex  Street  saloon  called 
the  King. 

Luke,  who  of  course  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
management  of  the  Forbes  company,  nevertheless 
occasionally  passed  an  evening  at  the  quiet  Brooklyn 
home  of  its  president,  who  was  a  widower  living 
alone  with  his  only  child,  Betty,  a  pretty,  high- 
colored,  brown-eyed  girl,  as  yet  unformed  and  only 
twenty-two  years  old.  As  a  rule,  these  two  men  sat 
in  the  parlor,  a  room  that  retained  the  character  of 
Forbes's  grandfather,  and  talked  of  everything  and 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  {75 

nothing,  the  girl  rarely  intruding  upon  them.  It 
was  inevitable  that  they  should,  during  the  floodtide 
of  the  Washington  scandal,  speak  of  its  revelations. 

"  I  don't  know  what  to  make  of  them,"  sighed 
Luke.  "  It  seems  as  if  the  fellows  at  the  head  of  our 
party  were  no  better  than  the  fellows  at  the  head  of 
the  other." 

"  They  are  not,"  said  Forbes  with  conviction. 
"  Here  they  all  are  blackmailing  the  tariff,  a  system 
the  country  owes  all  its  prosperity  to." 

"  We  shall  have  to  pick  honest  leaders  in  the  fu 
ture,"  Luke  reflected.  He  still  believed  in  the  power 
of  a  party's  individual  members.  "  We've  simply 
been  too  easy-going  in  the  past." 

Forbes  thought  this  would  avail  nothing. 

"  The  parties  themselves  are  rotten,"  he  declared, 
"  and  the  deeper  a  man  gets  into  them,  no  matter 
how  well  he  starts  out,  the  more  certain  he  is  to  be 
infected.  You  see  how  even  the  good  measures  are 
fraudulently  put  through.  Then  here's  our  own 
state  with  a  Governor  we  all  believed  in — a  Demo 
crat,  to  be  sure,  but  an  anti-Tammany  man.  He 
comes  out  for  a  fine  thing  like  direct  primaries.  Well, 
the  other  day  an  Assemblyman  I  know  went  to  him 
and  asked  him  to  sign  a  bill  this  Assemblyman  wanted 
passed.  What  happened?  The  Governor  said: 
1  Will  you  vote  for  the  direct  primary  law?'  The 


76  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Assemblyman  happens  to  be  a  fool  and  against  that 
law.  He  said  he'd  vote  against  it,  and  he  tells  me 
the  Governor  told  him  in  that  case  the  other  bill 
wouldn't  be  signed.  No,  the  thing  we  need  in  this 
country  is  a  brand-new  party  run  by  honest  business 
men  on  sound  business  principles." 

Luke  could  not  yet  consider  such  a  revolution;  but 
the  next  day  the  papers  contained  further  news  of  the 
senatorial  investigation,  which  lent  weight  to  Forbes's 
opinion.  A  witness,  after  testimony  further  entan 
gling  that  great  financier  whose  power  seemed  to  per 
vade  the  country's  entire  industrial  system,  described 
an  alleged  forgery  in  the  books  of  a  railway  known 
to  be  controlled  by  Porcellis's  hero  and  eager  to 
evade  the  anti-trust  laws.  According  to  this  witness, 
a  "  double  entry "  of  $2,000,000,  representing  se 
curities  that  the  road  assumed  in  taking  over  two 
other  roads,  was  carried  in  the  "  Consolidated  balance 
sheet "  for  some  time,  then  erased  from  one  side  of 
the  ledger,  and  left  as  a  credit  balance  on  the  other 
side. 

"  They  took  all  the  securities  of  the  acquired 
roads,"  he  swore,  "  and  used  them  as  securities  for 
a  bond-issue.  They  got  that  money  and  used  it  to 
finance  two  other  outside  transactions  that  they  sold 
out  at  a  tremendous  profit." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  77 

He  named  as  participants  in  this  three  Senators 
high  in  the  councils  of  Luke's  party. 

"  Of  course  they're  a  bad  lot,"  Leighton  cheer 
fully  admitted  when  the  District-Attorney's  staff  gos 
siped  about  the  latest  revelation,  "  and  the  party  is 
no  better  right  here  in  New  York  than  it  is  in  any 
other  state.  But  you  can't  repair  an  organization 
by  smashing  it.  What  we  need  is  reform  within  the 
party.  The  party  must  reform  itself.  And  that's 
what  I'm  trying  to  bring  about." 

He  did,  indeed,  give  out  interviews  to  this  effect, 
and  gathered  a  considerable  following.  A  little  con 
vention  was  called  at  Saratoga  where,  fired  by  fresh 
faith,  Luke  made  his  first  political  speech,  holding 
up  Leighton  as  the  Erasmus  of  Republicanism.  It 
was  an  unfortunate  simile,  for  the  opposition  press 
lost  no  time  in  lampooning  the  District-Attorney  as 
Erasmus  at  his  weakest;  but  the  movement  grew,  and 
Luke,  in  common  with  his  fellow-believers,  began  to 
see  light  in  the  political  darkness. 

He  still  possessed  the  beautiful  power  of  dream 
ing,  and  when,  by  night,  coming  from  a  theater  or 
leaving  the  house  of  Mrs.  Ruysdael  or  one  of  her 
friends,  he  turned  into  Broadway  and  saw  the  myriad 
lights  of  its  cafes  mount  heavenward  and  mix  with 
and  illuminate  the  pillars  of  smoke  and  steam  rising 
from  its  chimneys,  he  could  detect  in  their  wreaths 


78  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

the  faces  of  grinning  devils  raised  by  the  pestilential 
life  below,  laughing  at  it,  dipping  enormous  white 
claws  to  stir  it,  and  then  hissing  skyward  as  if  to 
proclaim,  because  of  what  New  York  was,  their  defi 
ance  of  God.  Once  or  twice,  to  escape  from  them, 
he  walked  as  far  downtown  as  Wall  Street  and 
loitered  through  the  silent  night,  where  the  three 
churches  stood  on  the  modern  battleground  of  mad 
finance  to  remind  of  its  history  the  city  with  the  short 
est  memory  in  Christendom.  Mentally,  he  converted 
that  portion  of  the  town  to  what  it  once  had  been. 
He  saw  it  the  home  of  a  modest  aristocracy  in  simple 
houses  along  shaded  streets,  a  center  of  good  taste, 
of  culture,  of  social  well-being. 

The  old  Astor  House,  now  fallen  into  shabby 
desuetude,  he  pictured  as  it  was  when  state  banquets 
were  given  there,  and  when  it  was  the  one  place  in 
which  the  distinguished  visitor  would  stop.  Close  by 
the  spot  where  the  Woolworth  Building  to-day 
houses  eighteen  thousand  persons,  the  Astor  House 
had  moved  Horace  Greeley  to  admiration  because 
six  hundred  and  forty-seven  persons  slept  under  its 
roof.  There  Clay  had  received  the  news  of  his 
nomination  in  1844,  and  Webster  the  word  of  his  de 
feat  at  the  hands  of  the  Whig  convention  in  1852. 
That  hotel  had  been  familiar  to  Pierce,  Van  Buren, 
Buchanan,  and  Taylor,  to  Seward,  Choate,  and 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  79 

Douglas.  Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  had  given  it  an 
almost  royal  atmosphere,  and  recollections  of  Lin 
coln  still  hung  about  its  tarnished  walls. 

Would  the  old  spirit  come  back  again?  Could  it 
return?  Luke  was  sure  that  it  could  and  would. 
He  was  sure  that  Leighton,  and  the  honest  men  asso 
ciated  with  him,  had  begun  a  movement  that  must 
end  by  restoring  the  nation's  lost  ideals.  Government 
would  govern,  honest  property  would  be  protected, 
religion  would  again  open  man's  eyes  to  his  own  lit 
tleness  and  the  omnipotence  of  the  Deity.  There 
would  be  legislation  that  would  be  the  end  of  indus 
trial  combinations,  of  the  crushing  of  the  small  manu 
facturer  and  the  grinding  of  the  faces  of  the  poor. 
No  more  national  banks  would  be  merged,  none 
would  engage  in  promoting  or  underwriting;  inter 
locking  directorates  would  cease,  and  the  concentra 
tion  of  credit,  the  Money  Trust,  would  forever  after 
be  an  impossibility.  It  was  so  easy.  It  needed  but 
an  awakened  conscience  in  the  majority  of  the  voters 
and  a  few  conscientious  men  to  lead. 

§  3.  Luke's  father  died  within  three  years  after 
the  young  man  entered  upon  his  duties  under  Brouwer 
Leighton.  The  elder  Huber  had  embarked  his  small 
fortune  in  an  adventure  that,  as  events  soon  proved, 
was  opposed  to  one  of  the  interests  of  the  great 


So  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

financier  whom  he  had  once  so  much  admired :  those 
interests  ruined  the  adventure  and,  more  from  grief 
because  of  this  than  from  any  specific  malady,  the 
Congressman  fell  in  the  fight.  He  died  proud  of 
his  son — a  pride  that  Mrs.  Huber  and  Jane  zealously 
shared — and  he  left  the  family  in  Luke^s  care. 

The  young  man,  who  had  loved  his  father  in  spite 
of  all  the  differences  between  them,  and  long  felt  the 
loss,  met  this  situation  without  complaint.  Neither 
the  mother  nor  the  sister  wanted  to  go  to  New  York, 
and,  as  Luke  managed  to  live  within  his  meager 
salary,  he  was  able  to  continue  for  them  the  home 
in  Americus  upon  the  income  from  his  now  well- 
paying  investment  in  R.  H.  Forbes  &  Son.  Jane, 
indeed,  soon  engaged  herself  and  was  married  to  a 
Doncaster  lawyer  who  secured  an  election  to  the  late 
Mr.  Huber's  seat  in  Congress,  so  that  Luke's  ex 
penses  in  Americus  were  light. 

He  began  to  fall  in  love  with  Betty  Forbes.  The 
women  of  the  Ruysdael  set  did  not  fail  to  attract 
him,  but  he  never  considered  them  as  within  his 
means,  and  so  speedily  placed  them  outside  of  his 
desires.  Forbes's  daughter,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
the  feminine  counterpart  of  her  father,  and,  as  she 
grew,  she  developed  many  of  his  qualities,  being 
quiet,  determined,  unobtrusive,  and  womanly  in  the 
sense  in  which  men  like  Forbes  used  that  word  before 


THE  SPIDER'  WEB  81 

Woman  began  to  give  it  a  new  significance.  Accept 
ing  the  world  in  the  garb  in  which  Forbes  thought  it 
well  to  present  it  to  her,  she  owned  only  the  finest 
standards  of  her  type,  and  there  was  no  meanness  in 
her.  Physically,  she  had  that  rarity  in  young  women : 
height  combined  with  grace.  Her  hair,  as  Luke  saw 
it,  was  like  so  much  sunshine,  her  eyes  were  clear  and 
brown,  and  the  radiance  of  her  coloring  not  even  a 
man  that  was  not  her  lover  could  deny.  Luke,  for 
his  part,  thought  her  far  too  good  for  him.  He  told 
himself  she  was  all  that  the  people  of  the  Ruysdael 
set  should  be  and  were  not :  she  made  important  and 
shameful  the  casual  relations  he  had  had  with  women 
of  the  half-world  and  that  in  their  occurrence — less 
frequent  than  is  usual  in  the  lives  of  young  men — had 
seemed  trivial  and  matter-of-fact;  and  therefore  he 
determined  to  win  her,  so  soon  as  he  could  make 
a  place  for  himself  through  the  pursuit  of  his  ideals. 

§  4.  That  pursuit  grew  daily  more  difficult.  The 
candle  of  his  faith  in  Leighton,  though  it  continued 
to  burn  steadily,  burned  less  fiercely  than  of  old. 
The  movement  for  reform  within  the  party  spread, 
but  it  spread  almost  too  rapidly;  it  came  to  include 
certain  politicians  who  were  now  for  the  first  time 
in  their  careers  evincing  a  desire  for  the  organiza 
tion's  betterment,  and  that  only  after  the  organization 


82  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

had  failed  to  re-elect  them  to  office.  These  men,  in 
one  or  two  instances,  came  into  control,  and  it  was 
soon  necessary  to  reform  the  reformers.  Sometimes 
Leighton  appeared  disheartened,  and  Luke  began  to 
acquire  a  weary  and  well-nigh  uninterested  manner  in 
dealing  with  his  part  of  the  crusade. 

"  Look  here,"  he  once  said  to  his  chief,  "  that 
fellow  you  got  a  pardon  for  last  week  has  been  in 
to  see  me." 

"  Yes?  "  said  Leighton.  His  feet  were  cocked  on 
his  desk  and,  in  his  favorite  attitude,  he  was  leaning 
back  in  his  chair  with  his  fingers  clasped  in  his  crisp, 
black  hair.  His  face  was  not  the  face  that  Luke  had 
known  when  he  first  came  to  New  York. 

"  Well,"  continued  the  assistant,  "  he  came  in  just 
after  I  got  back  from  the  Ludlow  Street  Jail.  That 
place  is  full  of  nobody  but  husbands  who  won't  pay 
alimony,  but  the  keepers  act  as  valets  and  barbers 
and  do  light  housekeeping  for  the  prisoners." 

"  It's  the  civil  prison.    We  can't  help  it." 

"  Couldn't  you  swing  things  so  a  Grand  Jury  would 
report  on  it?  " 

"  What's  the  use?  And  what  has  Ludlow  Street 
got  to  do  with  Auburn,  where  our  pardoned  friend 
has  been?  " 

"  Only  this :  the  rich  men  in  Ludlow  Street  are  liv 
ing  as  if  they  were  in  a  hotel,  but  at  Auburn,  this 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  83 

fellow  says,  they've  got  a  cell  with  pointed  nails  in 
the  floor  so  a  prisoner  sent  to  it  for  bad  behavior 

can't  sit  down  or  sleep.  They've Oh,  I  can't 

go  into  it  all  now;  but  the  women  are  treated  as  bad 
as  the  men;  the  thing  must  be  worse  than  the  Black 
Hole  of  Calcutta,  and  all  the  while  the  State's  pay 
ing  for  the  warden's  horses  and  carriages." 

Leighton  showed  some  interest,  but  later,  when 
Luke  returned  to  the  subject,  he  said  there  was  noth 
ing  to  be  done :  the  political  situation  would  not  just 
then  permit  it. 

Came  the  unmasking  of  one  of  the  new  partisans 
of  reform.  This  man,  a  Simon  Kaindiac,  was  an  in 
spector  in  the  New  York  post-office.  Federal  detec 
tives  arrested  him  and  showed  him  to  have  made  a 
fortune  by  extortion  from  swindling  concerns  that 
.were  using  the  United  States  mails  to  entrap  their 
victims. 

"  I  know,  I  know !  "  cried  Leighton  peevishly 
when  Uhler  brought  him  the  news  in  Luke's  pres 
ence.  "  But  how  am  I  to  blame  for  that?  All  the 
papers  will  be  at  me  for  it.  As  if  I  were  responsible 
for  the  business  morals  of  every  man  that  happened 
to  think  as  I  do  about  the  political  ethics  of  the 
party!"  He  turned  to  Luke.  "What's  on  your 
mind,  Huber?  " 

Luke  said  that  what  was  on  his  mind  was  this:  the 


84  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

office  had  that  morning  received  the  report  of  inves 
tigators  who  pointed  out  that,  since  the  success  of 
the  cocaine  raids,  heroin  had  taken  the  place  of  the 
proscribed  drug. 

"  Well,"  said  Leighton,  "  I'm  sorry,  but  the  laws 
governing  the  sale  of  heroin  aren't  the  same  as  those 
governing  the  sale  of  cocaine,  and,  until  they  are, 
you'll  find  you  can't  successfully  prosecute  under 
them." 

"  We  might  get  at  the  thing  another  way,"  Luke 
protested.  His  growing  love  for  Betty  had  given 
him  new  views  on  some  old  subjects.  "  They  say  the 
girls  in  the  houses " 

Leighton  swung  his  feet  to  the  floor.  His  tired 
face  worked  irritably. 

"  Now,  don't  begin  on  them,"  he  commanded. 
"  They're  the  police's  affair,  anyhow.  They've  al 
ways  existed  and  always  will.  They  simply  adapt 
themselves  to  whatever  form  of  society  happens  to 
exist.  No  really  effective  method  of  regulation,  let 
alone  suppression,  has  ever  been  devised  or  ever  will 
be.  Gee  whiz,  young  man,  do  you  know  what  you'll 
get  up  against  if  you  tackle  this  subject?  For  four 
thousand  years  the  high-brows  have  been  trying  to 
make  it  unpopular,  and  they  haven't  succeeded  yet." 

It  was  much  the  same  when  Luke  and  O'Mara 
came  across  the  trail  of  corruption  among  the  police. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  85 

They  found  one  man  who  would  make  affidavit  to  the 
fact  that  patrolmen  had  paid  him  to  instigate  bur 
glaries  in  order  that  the  patrolmen  might  make  arrests 
and  win  promotion.  This  man  had  friends  among 
the  keepers  of  illegal  resorts  who  would  swear  to 
paying  tribute  to  police  captains.  He  introduced  the 
two  lawyers  to  a  collector  who  said  that  $2,400,000 
were  yearly  paid  in  this  way,  that  he  himself  was  the 
go-between  for  a  police  lieutenant,  securing  from 
fifty  to  five  hundred  dollars  a  month  each  from  those 
who  bought  protection.  No  discretion  seemed  to  be 
used,  and  he  showed  checks  to  corroborate  his  story. 

"  Do  you  think  you  could  do  anything  on  such  evi 
dence?"  sneered  Leighton.  "  You  couldn't  send  a 
yellow  dog  to  jail  on  it.  This  fellow  confesses  he's 
a  crook  himself.  Start  an  agitation  to  force  the 
Police  Commissioner  to  resign  as  unfit?  Not  much! 
If  he  resigned,  *  unfit '  would  mean  *  guilty.'  His 
crowd's  in  the  saddle,  and  if  you  want  to  unhorse 
him,  you've  got  to  unhorse  them." 

He  walked  up  and  down  the  floor. 

'  The  trouble  with  us  is  we  don't  fight  the  devil 
with  fire,"  he  said;  "  and  the  trouble  with  the  whole 
system  is  too  many  laws.  There  are  too  many  lawyers 
at  Albany  and  Washington;  they  know  all  about  law 
and  nothing  about  Man,  so  when  the  public  con 
science  turns  over  and  whines  in  its  sleep,  these  fel- 


86  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

lows  think  they  can  cure  it  of  what  ails  it  by  passing 
a  few  more  laws.  They  pass  a  law  against  dance- 
halls,  and  they  breed  brothels.  That's  the  way  it 
goes  all  down  the  line.  They  pass  a  lot  of  such  laws 
and  then  say :  '  Now,  let  the  District- Attorney  do 
the  rest.'  I  wish  they  had  my  job  for  one  day  1  Peo 
ple  have  got  to  understand  that  other  people  don't 
indulge  their  tastes  out  of  mere  love  of  law-break 
ing." 

He  took  another  turn  of  the  room. 

"  And  if  we're  going  to  whip  political  gangs,"  he 
said,  "  we  must  have  a  political  gang  of  our  own,  and 
one  better  than  the  one  we  happen  to  be  fighting. 
There's  Tim  Heney  over  on  the  East  Side.  He  may 
be  as  crooked  as  God  makes  them,  but  when  people 
give  him  votes,  he  gives  them  coal  in  winter  and  pic 
nics  in  summer.  He  goes  to  their  funerals  and  their 
weddings,  and  he  knows  more  about  what  the  people 
of  this  country  want  than  Thomas  Jefferson  would 
have  known  if  he'd  lived  to  be  a  hundred.  And 
what's  more,  he  can  do  what  none  of  your  statesmen 
ever  can  do :  he  can  keep  them  quiet.  Do  you  won 
der?  Think  what  he  does  for  them.  Do  you  wonder 
they  stick  to  him?" 

§  5.  Luke  began  to  believe  that  Forbes  was  right: 
There  was  need  of  a  new  party.  Daily  his  lethargy 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  87 

increased;  daily  he  lived  more  in  his  love  for  Betty 
and  in  the  dreams  that  emerged  less  and  less  upon 
the  plane  of  his  actual  life. 

His  contact  with  the  bar  did  not  raise  either  it  or 
the  bench  in  his  estimation.  In  a  file  of  documents 
at  his  office,  the  legacy  of  a  former  administration, 
he  came  across  vouchers  for  sums  aggregating 
$3,000  paid  by  a  local  railway  to  witnesses  who  had 
sworn  against  a  lawyer  indicted  for  subornation  of 
perjury  in  pressing  a  damage-case  against  the  com 
pany,  and  among  these  was  one  for  $500  paid  to 
the  referee  that  signed  the  report.  He  heard  of  a 
rural  courthouse  that  by  night  became  a  gambling- 
house  conducted  by  court  officers;  there  was  a  judge 
on  the  Pacific  Slope  who  sold  a  patent,  the  idea  for 
which  he  stole  from  the  plaintiff  in  a  patent  case  in 
his  own  court;  the  District- Attorney  of  Doncaster 
County,  in  Pennsylvania,  told  Luke  that  only  the 
statute  of  limitations  saved  from  jail  three  associate 
judges  of  that  county  who  had  accepted  bribes  in  the 
granting  of  liquor  licenses,  and  that  a  judge  in  a 
nearby  county  had  accepted  $3,500  toward  his  cam 
paign  fund  from  brewing  companies  whose  retailers 
must  apply  to  him  for  licenses.  It  seemed  that  of 
two  of  the  most  prominent  judges  of  the  higher 
court  in  New  York,  one  was  chosen  directly  through 
the  efforts  of  Tim  Heney,  and  the  other  was  the 


88  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

brother  of  the  principal  member  of  a  trust  which 
had  cases  in  his  court.  A  judge  of  a  Federal  Court 
was  forced  from  the  bench  because  of  his  financial 
interests  in  a  company  with  which  he  had  to  deal 
in  his  judicial  capacity,  and  a  New  Jersey  judge, 
a  friend  of  Leighton,  was  said  to  be  hearing  suits 
to  which  a  certain  railway  was  a  party  and  then, 
during  vacations,  appearing  in  a  neighboring  county 
court  as  a  lawyer  retained  by  the  same  com 
pany. 

The  follies  of  the  law  appeared  to  be  more  numer 
ous  than  its  faults.  One  judicial  decision  enjoined 
members  of  a  labor  union  from  the  peaceable  persua 
sion  from  work  of  individuals  not  under  agreement 
to  work  for  the  corporation  in  the  mills  of  which  a 
strike  was  in  progress.  A  Philadelphia  jurist  denied 
the  right  of  free  speech  to  aliens.  In  Illinois,  Smith 
appealed  from  a  conviction  for  swindling  Brown,  and 
the  Supreme  Court  upheld  him  because  the  indict 
ment,  which  read  that  Smith  "  did  unlawfully  and 
feloniously  obtain  from  Brown  his  money,"  was  in 
definite  and  misleading:  the  learned  court  held  that 
the  pronoun  "  his  "  might  refer  to  either  party,  and 
that  the  Grand  Jury  might  simply  have  been  indicat 
ing  its  belief  that  Brown  obtained  his  own  money 
unlawfully. 

Worse  miscarriages  of  justice  were,  of  course,  com- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  89 

mon,  even  in  Leighton's  office,,  and  sentences  were 
often  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  crimes  that  incurred 
them.  The  editor  of  a  radical  paper  in  Paterson  was 
given  an  indeterminate  term  in  prison  of  not  less 
than  one  year  and  not  more  than  fifteen  years  for 
criticising  the  Paterson  police.  The  larger  the  scope 
of  a  swindler's  transactions,  the  better  his  chances  of 
immunity.  One  minor  case  long  remained  in  Luke's 
memory.  A  clerk  in  a  trust  company  disappeared 
with  $25,000,  and  a  fugitive  bill  of  indictment  was 
returned  against  him;  the  runaway  opened  negotia 
tions  with  his  former  employers  by  means  of  adver 
tisements  in  the  Paris  newspapers  and  then  used  his 
wife  as  an  intermediary  until  the  trust  company 
promised  to  have  the  District-Attorney  submit  the 
indictment  for  a  verdict  of  not  guilty  if  the  clerk 
would  return  with  the  $15,000  still  in  his  hands; 
the  careful  fugitive  hid  $7,500  in  Germany,  and 
returned  with  the  rest;  he  refused  to  tell  the  hiding- 
place  until  he  was  safe;  the  company  found  the 
District- Attorney  willing  to  follow  its  suggestion; 
the  verdict  of  Not  Guilty  was  accordingly  recorded, 
and  the  clerk,  free  from  further  harm,  made  over  to 
the  company  the  remaining  $7,500  that  he  had  left 
in  Europe  as  an  anchor  to  windward. 

There  was  probably  no  more  laxity  among  law 
yers  than  among  men  of  other  professions,  but  to 


90  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Luke's  mind  it  seemed  imperative  that  traders  in 
justice  should  be  especially  just.  He  came  across 
countless  cases  of  pettifogging  among  shyster  prac 
titioners,  and  nearly  as  many  suspicious  actions  in 
the  ranks  of  their  cleverer  and,  therefore,  more  suc 
cessful  and  eminent  brethren. 

Ever  seeking  remedies,  he  once  drew  up  a  list  of 
such  as  he  found.  He  wanted  more  publicity  and 
freedom  of  criticism;  measures  to  curb  the  bench's 
power  to  declare  laws  unconstitutional,  to  force  it  to 
give  fuller  reasons  in  support  of  its  decisions;  he 
wanted  devices  to  end  "  the  law's  delays,"  simplified 
procedure  and  judges  who  were  closer  to  the  people 
and  farther  from  the  corporations;  he  thought  the 
courts  of  appeal  ought  to  be  forced  to  decide  every 
question  in  every  case  appealed  to  them;  and  he  ad 
vocated  but  one  appeal  in  civil  actions  together  with 
the  right  of  recall  both  in  regard  to  judges  and 
to  their  decisions. 

§  6.  He  had  come  to  a  point  where  he  doubted,  not 
it  is  true  Leighton's  intentions,  but  his  ability  to 
achieve  them.  Those  were  the  days  when  the  Pro 
gressive  Party  was  being  formed,  and  Luke  for  some 
time  considered  it  as  a  hopeful  sign.  Forbes  enlisted 
in  the  ranks  of  the  new  organization  and  championed 
it  wherever  he  went,  not  least  among  the  workers  in 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  91 

his  factory.  Luke  had  joined  a  club  of  young  men 
who  had  for  the  most  part  inherited  their  money 
and  were  unanimous  for  the  new  movement;  it  was 
time,  they  said,  that  politics  should  be  taken  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  muckers,  and  they  came  near  to  con 
vincing  Luke  until,  in  a  moment  of  enthusiasm,  he 
happened  upon  secrets  which  showed  him  that  the 
men  in  power  in  this  party  were  not  different  from 
the  men  that  had  spoiled  Leighton's  plan  for  the 
purification  of  the  Republican  Party  from  within. 
From  a  source  he  could  not  doubt,  he  heard  that  even 
George  Hallett  had  talked  of  offering  his  support 
"  because  these  old  crowds  are  too  greedy;  they're 
chargin'  us  too  much;  it's  got  to  be  highway  rob 
bery  that  big  business  has  to  submit  to,  and  I'm 
tired  of  it." 

For  some  time  Luke  lost  faith  in  the  possibility 
of  any  cure.  There  was  talk  of  a  movement  to  fuse 
the  reform  voters  of  all  parties,  but  it  left  him  cold. 
He  had  been  a  successful  prosecutor,  and  his  name 
was  familiar  to  newspaper  readers;  his  advocacy  of 
Leighton  had  won  him  a  prominence,  even  a  certain 
following,  among  the  public;  but  the  irony  of  life 
was  too  much  for  him;  he  had,  at  this  period,  an  eye 
too  appreciative  of  the  odds  against  him.  He  saw 
Betty  two  or  three  times  a  week,  took  her  motoring 
and  to  the  theaters,  but  he  refrained  from  showing 


92  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

her  that  he  loved  her,  because  he  saw  no  chance  of 
offering  her  himself  as  a  man  worth  while.  The 
lethargy  of  his  manner  became  more  marked.  He 
began  to  bear  the  outward  tokens  of  one  that  does 
not  care.  To  this  he  had  come  after  four  years  in 
New  York. 


CHAPTER  V 

§  i.  The  hideous  North  Bridge  disaster  occurred 
on  a  spring  morning  during  the  last  year  of  Leigh- 
ton's  first  term  in  office.  The  District-Attorney, 
whose  habitual  disparagement  of  his  post  did  not 
dull  his  desire  to  retain  it,  was  busy  planning  for  re 
election,  and  the  work  of  his  staff,  labor  how  they 
would,  was  congested.  The  assistants  were  straining 
to  make  a  record  of  convictions  with  which  their 
chief  might  go  before  the  electors  in  the  autumn, 
and  were  giving  to  participation  in  political  coun 
cils  every  half-hour  that  they  dared  spare  from  their 
legal  tasks;  they  were  hard  driven  and  worn  to 
the  nerves;  yet  the  news  of  the  wreck  of  the  Man 
hattan  &  Niagara  Railway,  immediately  within  the 
city's  limits,  burst  through  doors  that  had  been 
opened  only  to  men  with  power  or  appointments  and 
swept,  even  from  the  collective  mind  of  the  corps, 
the  bulking  thought  of  jury  lists  and  ballots. 

The  Manhattan  and  Niagara  had  entered  New 
York  only  a  few  years  before,  with  a  line  that  tapped 
fresh  territory.  Along  this  line  real-estate  opera 
tors  forthwith  plotted  ten  or  a  dozen  towns,  and 

93 


94  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

white-and-yellow  suburbs  leaped  up  like  mushrooms. 
They  were  peopled  by  clerks  and  small  businessmen 
that  came  into  the  city  over  the  M.  &  N.  every  morn 
ing  and  returned  home  by  the  same  route  each 
evening. 

From  the  opening  of  the  new  line,  complaints  had 
been  common :  it  was  said  that  the  service  was  inade 
quate,  that  the  cars  and  other  rolling-stock  were 
largely  second-hand  material  purchased  from  the 
older  New  York  &  New  Jersey  Railroad;  that  the 
rails  were  the  cheapest  obtainable,  the  ties  bought 
from  an  abandoned  branch  line  near  Buffalo.  One 
serious  wreck  had  preceded  that  at  the  North  Bridge, 
but  had  not  been  followed  by  the  improvements  the 
company  had  promised.  The  patrons  had  protested 
with  all  the  vigor  Americans  exhibit  when  they  feel 
that  a  public-service  corporation  is  cheating  them, 
and  had  stopped  as  far  on  the  discreet  side  of  action 
as  protesting  Americans  usually  stop :  the  M.  &  N.'s 
parsimony  became  grist  for  the  mill  of  the  humorous 
weeklies  and  produced  no  further  reaction.  This 
morning,  a  train  crowded  with  men  going  to  their 
offices  plunged  through  a  bridge  crossing  an  uptown 
street:  a  hundred  passengers  were  wounded  and 
twenty-five  killed. 

The  earliest  editions  of  the  evening  papers 
shrieked  the  news,  and  special  editions  rushed  from 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  95 

the  presses.  In  most  of  them  the  M.  &  N.  had 
taken  care  to  be  a  heavy  advertiser,  but  here  was  an 
event  so  clearly  due  to  the  railway's  known  policy 
that  no  paper  could  belittle  the  culpability  of  the 
management :  the  bridge  had  been  recently  examined 
and  pronounced  safe  by  state  inspectors,  yet  all  re 
ports  agreed  that  it  was  constructed  of  the  very  light 
est  material,  and  the  earliest  evidence  showed  that  a 
rail  had  flattened  and  thrown  the  train.  To  persons 
having  a  fair  knowledge  of  current  finance,  it  was 
known  that  the  M.  &  N.  was  controlled  by  the  group 
of  capitalists  who  were  actively  at  the  management  of 
the  nominally  rival  N.  Y.  &  N.  J. 

Luke  sent  his  office-boy  to  buy  him  the  first  edition 
that  he  heard  called  beneath  his  window.  It  placed 
the  dead  at  a  hundred  and  the  injured  at  thrice  that 
figure,  and  when  Huber's  eyes  caught  the  obscure 
paragraph  that  hinted  at  the  real  ownership  of  the 
road,  his  cheeks,  now  so  generally  pale,  reddened, 
and  the  hand  that  held  the  paper  trembled.  Some 
thing  of  his  old  indignation  and  purpose  woke  in 
him.  He  ordered  the  boy  to  bring  him  a  copy  of 
each  fresh  edition  as  it  appeared  on  the  street,  and 
though  the  lists  of  victims  shrank  to  their  true  num 
ber,  the  outstanding  fact  of  the  owners'  guilt  re 
mained. 


96  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Leighton  passed  through  Luke's  room  on  his  re 
turn  from  luncheon.  His  face  was  drawn  with  the 
long  worry  of  his  campaign;  he  had  been  eating  with 
two  politicians  and  shaping  plans  while  he  bolted 
food. 

"  Begins  to  look  as  if  we  can  get  the  indorsement 
of  the  anti-Tammany  Democrats,"  he  said  as  he  hur 
ried  by.  "  I've  just  had  a  talk  with  Seeley  and  El 
lison.  They're  coming  here  at  three  o'clock." 

Luke  held  up  his  paper. 

"  This  is  an  awful  thing,"  he  said. 

"What?"  asked  Leighton.  He  passed  beside 
Luke's  desk.  "  Oh,  the  North  Bridge  wreck?  Yes, 
isn't  it?  When  Ellison  and  Seeley  come,  don't  let 
anybody  butt  in  on  me." 

"  You  know  who  are  really  the  responsible  crowd 
in  the  M.  &  N.  ?  "  Luke  persisted.  His  manner  was 
the  sleepy  manner  that  had  grown  upon  him  for  the 
past  twelvemonth,  but  his  eyes  were  keen. 

"  Yes,"  said  Leighton  absently.  He  ran  his  fin 
gers  through  his  always  disordered  hair.  "  Yes,  I 
know,  but  we  couldn't  prove  it."  He  looked  at  his 
watch.  "  Don't  forget,"  he  concluded,  "  you're  to 
head  off  anybody  that  comes  after  three  o'clock, 
and  if  you're  busy,  then  turn  them  over  to  one  of  the 
other  fellows." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  97 

§  2.  At  half-past  four  Luke's  office-boy  announced 
James  T.  Rollins. 

Luke  looked  up  heavily  from  the  latest  edition  of 
the  Evening  World. 

"  Who's  James  T.  Rollins?  "  he  inquired. 

The  boy  did  not  know.  "  But  he  looks  like  he 
owned  the  Stock  Exchange,"  he  said.  "  Wanted  the 
Boss:  I  told  him  he  was  busy." 

Luke  wearily  laid  aside  his  paper. 

"  Very  well,  bring  him  in." 

The  boy  went  out  and  straightway  reopened  the 
door  to  admit  the  visitor. 

Dressed  in  a  russet  brown,  Rollins  was  short  and 
stout;  his  eyebrows  were  bushy,  and  he  made  an 
effort  to  keep  his  thick  lips  drawn  in  a  firm  line. 
He  so  much  resembled  the  pictures  of  the  man  just 
then  predominant  in  Luke's  mind  that  the  assistant 
District-Attorney  was  startled. 

"Mr.  Rollins?" 

The  visitor  tried  to  speak,  but  seemed  to  be  un 
able  to  accomplish  articulation.  He  nodded.  He 
stood  erect  in  the  attitude  of  one  accustomed  to 
receive  orders,  and  his  right  hand  tapped  his  stiff 
hat  against  his  thigh. 

Luke  indicated  a  chair  beside  his  desk. 

"  Sit  down." 

Rollins  complied.      He   sat   far   forward   in  the 


98  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

chair,  as  if  expecting  to  be  ordered  out  of  it  at  the 
next  moment.  Both  hands  now  clutched  the  brim 
of  his  hat,  which  he  held  between  his  fat,  outspread 
knees. 

"  You  wanted  to  see  Mr.  Leighton?"  inquired 
Luke. 

Rollins  coughed. 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  I'm  sorry."  Luke  was  accustomed  to  callers  of 
the  hesitant  sort:  he  wished  that  this  one  would  go 
and  leave  him  alone  with  the  new  idea  that  was  grow 
ing  in  his  brain;  but  Leighton,  like  the  good  politician 
that  he  was,  had  always  given  strict  orders  that  every 
caller  should  be  well  received.  "  I'm  afraid  Mr. 
Leighton's  very  busy  now.  He  has  some  most  im 
portant  business  in  hand." 

Rollins  made  an  effort  toward  dignity;  his  words 
succeeded,  but  his  manner  of  uttering  them  failed: 

"  My  business  is  important,  too." 

"  And  immediate?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  Then  perhaps  I  can  attend  to  it  for  you." 

Rollins  shook  his  head. 

"  I've  got  to  see  the  District-Attorney." 

"  But  I  am  his  assistant." 

'  Yes,  sir,  I  know.     But  this  is  confidential." 

Luke  began  to  lose  patience. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  99 

"  Well/'  he  said,  "  as  I  told  you,  I'm  sorry,  but 
you  can't  see  him." 

In  spite  of  Leighton's  orders  and  his  own  cus 
tomary  obedience  to  them,  Luke's  voice  had  become 
sharp.  It  was  just  then  only  the  sharpness  of  an 
underling;  but,  because  Rollins  himself  was  an  under 
ling,  the  visitor  resented  it,  and  this  resentment  gave 
him  the  courage  he  wanted.  He  stood  up,  and  he 
bore  himself  with  an  erectness  which  had  a  fresh 
character. 

"  It's  him  that  will  be  sorry,"  he  said.  "  I  came 
here  to  give  him  information  that'd  re-elect  him." 

Notwithstanding  the  man's  new  attitude,  Luke 
thought  he  scented  the  crank.  All  sorts  of  cranks 
infested  the  District-Attorney's  office,  and  every  sort 
was  certain  it  could  purge  the  city  or  re-elect  Leigh- 
ton.  Luke  lost  his  temper.  He  spoke  with  the  drawl 
with  which  he  commonly  spoke,  but  his  tone  was 
bitter.  His  tongue  laid  hold  of  the  uppermost 
thought  in  his  head. 

"  I  suppose,"  he  said,  "  you've  come  here  to  place 
the  blame  for  the  North  Bridge  wreck?" 

The  breath  caught  in  Rollins's  throat. 

"  How  did  you  know?  "  he  demanded. 

It  was  not  a  crank  that  asked  that  question:  it 
was  a  sane  man  badly  startled.  Luke  recognized 
the  distinction  and  instantly  resolved  to  push  the  ad- 


ioo  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

vantage  he  had  fortuitously  gained.  He  rose,  smil 
ing  slowly. 

"  You've  told  me  you  knew  I  was  one  of  the 
assistant  district-attorneys  of  New  York,"  he 
drawled.  "  I  would  advise  you  to  act  on  the  knowl 
edge,  Mr.  Rollins,  and  not  to  lose  any  time  about 
it." 

"I "  began  Rollins;  but  bluster  came  to  the 

aid  of  his  timidity.  "  No,"  he  said,  u  I've  got  to  see 
Mr.  Leighton." 

Luke  had  no  idea  who  his  visitor  was  or  what 
information  he  might  possess,  but  he  was  now  cer 
tain  that  worth-while  information  was  in  Rollins's 
possession.  Without  further  fencing,  the  lawyer, 
therefore,  resorted  to  an  old  stratagem  that  he  had 
learned  when  he  first  entered  the  District-Attorney's 
office:  on  the  bare  chance  that  the  evidence  might  be 
documentary  and  within  reach,  he  took  a  quick  stride 
towards  Rollins,  raising  his  right  hand  as  if  to  seize 
him.  At  once  the  right  hand  of  Rollins  shot  up 
ward  and  stopped  protectingly  over  his  breast. 

"  Now  then,"  said  Luke,  "  hand  me  those  papers 
that  you've  got  in  your  breast-pocket." 

"  No,"  said  Rollins;  "  no;  they're  for  Mr.  Leigh- 
ton." 

"  Hand  them  over." 

"  They're  mine." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  101 

"  If  you  don't  hand  them  over,"  said  Luke  lazily, 
"  I  shall  take  them." 

"  You've  got  no  right  to !  " 

"  You'd  better  save  yourself  trouble,  Mr.  Rollins." 

"I  won't!" 

From  under  his  lazy  lids,  Luke  saw  that  the  man 
was  only  frightened.  With  a  flash  of  inspiration,  the 
lawyer  guessed  something  of  the  truth.  This  fellow 
was  probably  a  clerk  in  the  M.  &  N.  offices. 

"  You  won't  be  arrested  for  robbing  the  office- 
files,  if  that's  what  you're  scared  about,"  he  said; 
"  and  you  won't  be  told  on  and  discharged." 

Rollins  was  visibly  relieved. 

"You  give  me  your  word,  Mr.  Huber?" 

"  I  do.    Come  on  now:  let's  see  what  you've  got." 

"  And — I'm  not  a  rich  man,  Mr.  Huber." 

Luke's  face  showed  his  disgust. 

"  I  shan't  pay  you  a  cent,"  he  said;  "  but  I  dare 
say  Leighton  won't  mind  paying.  Only  even  he 
won't  buy  a  pig  in  a  poke.  Give  me  those  papers. 
If  they're  worth  anything,  I'll  take  you  into  the  Dis 
trict-Attorney's  room  right  away — or,  if  there's  some 
body  in  there,  I'll  have  him  out  here." 

Rollins  realized  that  Luke  meant  what  he  said. 
He  believed,  moreover,  that  his  inquisitor  was  merely 
cautious. 

"  All  right,"  he  agreed,  though  with  some  reluc- 


102  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

tance.  "  This  is  a  letter  from  my  employer  to  a  man 
that  always  had  to  return  such  letters  after  he's  read 
them.  The  other  letter  is  the  letter  from  the  rail 
manufacturers  that's  referred  to  in  the  first  one.  I 
got  them  both  by " 

"  I  can  guess  how,"  said  Luke. 

He  put  out  his  hand  and  into  it  Rollins  placed 
two  sheets  of  paper,  that  were  headed  on  top  simply 
by  an  embossed  Wall  Street  address  and  dated  almost 
five  years  before. 

Luke  read: 

"  Confidential. 

11  MR.  ROBERT  M.  DOHAN, 
"Delaware  Avenue, 

"  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
"  DEAR  MR.  DOHAN  : 

"  I  understand  that  the  bill  of  which  you  have  spoken  to 
me  will  be  passed  and  become  a  law  to-day.  I  have  just 
seen  Messrs.  Hallett  and  Rivington  and  have  secured  their 
agreement  to  the  plan  outlined  in  my  personal  conversation 
with  you  last  week.  In  view  of  the  favors  that  you  have 
done  me  in  the  past,  I  think  it  fair  to  tell  you,  for  your  own 
use  only,  that  my  friends  have  decided  that  they  and  I  ought 
to  do  what  you  thought  they  might  decide,  viz. :  unload  at  the 
end  of  five  years.  Considering  your  contemplated  resignation 
next  year,  this  will  not  affect  you,  except  favorably  in  case 
you  care  to  manipulate  your  own  holdings  in  accordance  with 
this  news. 

"  I  note  what  you  say  about  the  estimate  submitted  by  the 
construction-department;  also  the  letter  of  the  steel-rail  manu 
facturers  which  you  inclosed,  in  which  they  say  that  the  grade 
I  suggested  might  not  wear  well.  I  think  their  use  of  the 
word  *  dangerous '  is  absurdly  exaggerated.  We  have  used  this 
grade  on  several  of  our  roads  and  feel  sure  from  long  experience 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  103 

that,  with  proper  repair-gangs,  it  will  wear   for  five  years  as 
well  as  the  best. 

"  My  desire  and  the  desire  of  my  associates  is  to  protect  the 
interests  of  the  stockholders.  With  that  in  mind,  I  should 
state,  what  you  have  probably  already  gathered,  that  we  feel 
that  the  new  line  must  be  built  and  operated  with  all  possible 
economy." 

The  signature  was  the  signature  that  Luke  ex 
pected. 

"  Those  rails,"  said  Rollins,  "  weren't  replaced. 
Dohan  resigned,  and  these  letters  have  been  in  our 
office  ever  since.  The  crowd  was  planning  to  un 
load  in  November." 

"  Yes,"  said  Luke  dryly.  His  face  was  immobile 
and  his  voice  calm,  but  his  heart  seemed  to  beat 
against  his  ribs,  demanding  freedom.  "  Come  on  in 
here  to  Mr.  Leighton's  office." 

§  3.  He  had  forgotten  Seeley  and  Ellison,  but 
they  were  already  gone,  and  Leighton  was  alone.  Ap 
parently  the  conference  had  been  satisfactory,  for  the 
District-Attorney's  face  was  a  little  less  careworn. 

"  Mr.  Leighton,"  said  Luke,  closing  the  door, 
"  this  man  " — he  indicated  Rollins  by  a  lazy  move 
ment  of  his  hand — "  is  a  secretary  in  the  employ  of 
the  person  to  whom  these  letters  belong — or  be 
longed."  He  held  out  the  letters  that  Rollins  had 
given  him. 

Leighton's  face  clouded. 


104  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Office  business?  I  thought  I  told  you  I  had  some 
personal  matters  to  think  over." 

Luke  choked  an  impulse  of  resentment. 

"  If  you'll  look  at  these  letters,"  he  said,  "  I  be- 
lieve  you'll  find  they  apply  to — both  sorts  of  duties." 

Leighton  took  the  papers  with  a  gesture  of  an 
noyance,  but  when  he  saw  the  signature  to  the  more 
important  of  them,  his  eyes  shone,  and  he  looked  up 
quickly. 

"  Where  did  you  get  these?  "  He  flung  the  ques 
tion  at  Rollins. 

The  informer  had  been  standing  behind  Luke,  as 
if  seeking  his  shelter.  His  breath  came  heavily. 

"  I  found  them  in  the  office-files,"  he  mumbled. 

"  He  stole  them,"  said  Luke  quietly. 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Huber,  if  you're  going  to  talk  like 
that " 

"  He  stole  them,"  Luke  pursued — "  or  so  he  says. 
The  only  question  in  my  mind  is :  are  they  genuine?  " 

Rollins  showed  signs  of  resenting  this  suggestion 
more  keenly  than  the  declaration  that  he  was  a  thief. 
Leighton,  however,  interrupted:  he  was  squinting 
at  the  letter  that  Luke  had  read  in  full. 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  this  is  real  enough.  I  know  the 
signature." 

"  You  know  it?  "    Luke  was  surprised. 

"Yes,  yes."     Leighton  read  the  letter  through; 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  105 

then  turned  upon  Rollins  with  a  resumption  of  his 
cross-examining  manner.  "  How  much  d'you  want 
for  these?  " 

Rollins  beat  his  hat  upon  his  thigh. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  they  ought  to  be  worth  a  good 
deal  to  you,  Mr.  Leighton." 

"  I'll  give  you  five  hundred  dollars." 

"  Mr.  Leighton !  "  Rollins  was  deprecating. 
"  Five  hundred  dollars  !  " 

"What  do  you  want,  then?    Speak  up." 

"  Five  thousand  would  be  nearer  value,  Mr. 
Leighton." 

Luke  turned  away.  This  was  the  part  of  the 
business  that  he  loathed. 

"  I'll  give  you  two  thousand  and  not  a  cent  more," 
said  Leighton. 

Rollins  thought  himself  now  in  a  commanding 
position. 

"  I  can't  consider  that,"  he  said  with  the  nearest 
approach  to  firmness  he  had  yet  shown. 

"All  right,"  said  Leighton.  "Huber!"  He 
handed  the  letters  to  Luke.  "  Put  these  in  your  safe 
while  I  telephone  this  fellow's  employer." 

"  Mr.  Leighton !  "  Rollins  bounded  forward. 
His  fat  face  worked  with  rage,  disappointment,  and 
fear.  "  You  wouldn't  do  that.  This  is  robbery.  It's 
blackmail !  For  God's  sake,  Mr.  Leighton " 


io6  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"Two  thousand  dollars,"  said  Leighton. 

"  But  think  a  minute,  Mr.  Leighton !  I've  been 
in  my  job  for  seven  years — worked  up  to  it  from 
office-boy.  I  could  any  time  have  sold  tips  along  the 
street  for  twice  that  money,  and  yet  this  is  the  first 
time  I've  ever — ever " 

"  Ever  double-crossed  your  boss.  Well,  why'd 
you  do  it?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  It  was  because  this  wreck  is  so 
awful." 

"  And  what  else?" 

"  Nothing  else." 

Leighton  thrust  a  forefinger  into  the  informer's 
face. 

"What  else?" 

Rollins  jumped  back. 

"  Well,  he — he  didn't  raise  my  pay.  I've  got  a 
big  family,  and  there's  a  mortgage  on  my  little  house 
in  Roseville,  and  a  man  in  my  position  has  to  live 
well,  or  people'd  talk." 

Leighton  relaxed.  He  swung  back  in  his  chair  and 
cocked  his  feet  on  the  desk. 

"  I'll  make  it  two  thousand  five  hundred  for  your 
family's  sake.  That's  my  last  word." 

Luke,  who  had  again  turned  his  back  on  the  hag 
glers,  the  letters  safely  buttoned  in  an  inside  pocket 
of  his  coat,  wondered  how  his  chief  could  afford  such 
an  outlay. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  307 

"Is  that  really  the  best  you  can  do?"  whined 
Rollins, 

"  It  is  the  best  I  will  do,"  said  Leighton.  With 
out  lowering  his  feet,  he  pulled  toward  him  the  tele 
phone,  which  was  attached  to  his  desk  by  an  arm 
that  could  be  lengthened  or  shortened  at  the  user's 
will.  "  Now,  then,  your  boss  has  gone  home  long 
ago;  but  I  can  get  him  at  his  house;  do  you  want  to 
lose  your  job  or  make  this  money?  " 

Rollins  surrendered. 

"  I  guess  I'll  have  to  take  your  price,"  he  said. 
"  But  it's  almost  a  charity  I'm  doing." 

"Right!"  Leighton  released  the  telephone, 
quickly  swung  his  legs  from  the  desk  and  sat  straight. 

"  And  you'll  promise  nobody'll  ever  know  where 
you  got  these  letters?" 

"  Certainly." 

Rollins  looked  toward  Luke's  significant  back. 

"And  Mr.  Huber,  too?" 

Luke  turned. 

"  I've  already  promised  you  that,"  he  said. 

Leighton  smiled  faintly  as  he  said  to  Luke: 

"  I  guess  you  don't  happen  to  have  two  thousand 
five  hundred  in  loose  change  about  you,  do  you, 
Huber?" 

"  No,"  said  Luke.  He  saw  nothing  humorous 
anywhere  in  the  situation. 


io8  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Well,  this  is  no  affair  for  checks,  and  my  bank's 
uptown,"  Leighton  continued.  "  I  don't  suppose,"  he 
said  to  Rollins,  "  you  would  care  to  give  credit,  my 
dear  sir?  " 

Rollins  could  smile,  if  Luke  could  not.  He  shook 
his  head. 

"  My  bank,"  said  Luke,  anxious  to  end  the  scene, 
"  is  just  around  the  corner.  It's  closed,  but  the  clerks 
will  still  be  there.  They  know  me.  I  can  get  them 
to  let  me  in  the  side  door,  and  I  know  they'll  do  me  a 
favor.  I've  got  just  about  that  much  on  deposit." 
He  looked  at  Leighton.  "  Shall  I  take  Rollins 
along?" 

"Rollins?  Yes."  Leighton's  good-humor  seemed 
to  have  returned  to  stay.  "  Then  hurry  back  here — 
alone.  I'll  want  to  talk  this  thing  over  with  you." 

§  4.  Luke  paid  and  dismissed  Rollins.  Return 
ing,  he  found  Leighton  walking  rapidly  up  and 
down  his  office. 

"  Shut  the  door,"  said  the  District-Attorney.  His 
face  was  flushed;  he  spoke  quickly. 

Luke  shut  the  door. 

Leighton  came  forward  and  brought  his  hand 
down  on  Luke's  shoulder  with  a  resounding  smack. 

"  Do  you  know  what  this  means?  "  he  cried.  His 
mouth  was  wide  with  laughter;  the  whole  man  ex- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  109 

ulted.  "  This  re-elects  me !  Nothing  can  keep  us 
out  now,  Huber — not  a  thing  on  God's  green  foot 
stool.  All  we've  got  to  do  is  use  these  letters  and 
then  sit  back  and  fold  our  arms  and  attend  to  office 
business.  Politics?  These  two  pieces  of  paper  will 
play  all  the  politics  we  need,  and  more  besides.  I 
could  shout,  Huber;  I  could  sing  a  regular  Song  of 
Deborah.  What  about  Mr.  Timothy  Heney,  now? 
And  his  Tammany?  Gone  the  way  of  Sisera,  my 
boy.  Tim  Heney !  *  At  her  feet  he  bowed,  he  fell, 
he  lay  down ;  at  her  feet  he  bowed,  he  fell :  where  he 
bowed,  there  he  fell  down  dead !  ' 

Luke's  old  enthusiasm  was  rekindled.  He  thought 
that  he  had  been  misjudging  Leighton.  Of  course 
the  man  had  been  discouraged:  he  had  never  before 
been  able  to  seize  an  efficient  weapon  with  which  to 
shatter  the  forces  of  wrong;  even  at  this  time  it  was 
only  reasonable  that  his  first  thought  should  be  of  his 
immediate  political  opponents;  but  the  weapon  was 
put  into  his  hand  at  last,  the  blow  would  be  given 
against  both  Tammany  and  Wall  Street;  it  would 
be  the  blow  that  Luke  had  hoped  for  when  he  read 
the  first  accounts  of  the  North  Bridge  wreck. 

'*  There  must  be  a  special  Grand  Jury  to  investi 
gate  the  disaster,"  said  Luke,  his  words  falling  over 
one  another  much  as  Leighton's  had  done.  "  We 
must  keep  the  letters  dark  till  it's  in  session,  and  then. 


no  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

produce  them.  We  can  give  them  to  the  papers  right 
afterward.  It  will  be  jail  for  the  lot  of  them.  Big 
as  they  are,  it'll  be  that.  It'll  be  the  end  of  the  whole 
crowd!" 

Leighton  drew  away.  His  face  changed.  His 
entire  attitude  altered. 

"What  are  you  talking  about?"  he  asked  dryly. 

"  Why  " — Luke  was  amazed — "  about  these  let 
ters,  of  course." 

"  Well,  do  you  think  I'm  green  enough  to  waste 
them  on  a  jury?  Not  much!  " 

Luke  began  to  comprehend.  He  felt  unsteady. 
He  was  standing  close  to  Leighton's  desk,  and  he  put 
out  a  hand  and  gripped  the  edge  of  its  top  shelf. 

"  Not  give  them  to  the  jury?  "  But  perhaps  he 
was  wrong.  Of  course  he  was  wrong.  "  Oh,  I  see," 
he  said;  "  maybe  it's  better  not  to  risk  any  more  lives 
by  waiting.  You're  going  to  force  this  crowd  to 
put  down  a  decent  road-bed?  Only  if  you  do 

that Well,  it's  fine  of  you,  but  you'll  not  be  any 

better  off  politically." 

Leighton  turned  his  swivel-chair  and  sat  down  in 
it.  His  manner  became  that  of  an  employer  trying 
to  be  calm  and  to  instill  reason  into  an  annoying 
employee. 

"  Young  man,"  said  he,  "  just  you  listen  to  me  for 
about  two  minutes.  Those  fellows  do  control  this 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  in 

road,  but  they  didn't  operate  it.  In  spite  of  Rollins's 
blessed  letters,  you  can't  absolutely  say  they  operate 
it.  But  what  they  do  operate,  when  they  want  to, 
are  the  politics  of  this  city,  and  if  they  tell  Tam 
many,  yes,  or  me,  to  hold  off  and  let  an  election  go 
the  way  they  want  it,  why,  hold  off  Tammany  or 
anybody  else  has  to.  Nobody  could  win  if  they 
said  *  No.'  Now,  then  " — Leighton  punctuated  his 
words  with  the  rise  and  fall  of  an  index  finger — 
"  they're  not  actually  morally  responsible  for  the 
conduct  of  the  M.  &  N.,  but  they'll  know  the  publica 
tion  of  these  letters  would  make  the  public  think 
they  were.  They'll  know  the  publication  would 
wreck  the  road  they're  still  interested  in,  smash  all 
their  other  stocks  and  depreciate  all  their  other  in 
terests,  start  a  panic  that  might  swamp  even  them, 
and  maybe  begin  a  public  row  that  would  send  them 
close  to  jail,  on  general  principles,  legal  evidence  or 
no  legal  evidence.  To  stop  that,  they'd  be  willing 
to  have  me  elected,  which  they  weren't  yet  quite  cer 
tain  about  being  to-day.  I'll  go  to  them  quietly,  and 
then  I'll  surrender  these  letters,  when  they've  kept 
their  part  of  the  bargain  I'll  make.  And  don't  you 
worry  about  loss  of  life.  That  engineer  was  prob 
ably  green  or  drunk,  or  the  signal  man  got  rattled. 
You'll  see  the  coroner's  jury  says  so.  But,  anyhow, 
once  I'm  safely  re-elected,  I'll  take  care  the  M.  &  N. 


ii2  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

is  better  regulated  than  it  has  been.  There's  no  use 
in  a  row:  a  little  moral  suasion  will  do  the  trick." 

He  tossed  back,  and  clasped  his  hands  behind  his 
head. 

The  explanation  had  been  too  long:  it  was  long 
enough  to  allow  Luke  to  master  the  shock  of  what 
it  implied.  He  saw  his  last  illusions  concerning 
Leighton  fall  under  the  impact  of  Leighton's  own 
words.  He  was  aghast.  He  was  ashamed  of  his 
master;  he  was  ashamed  of  himself  for  ever  having 
served  such  a  master.  But  he  was  not  crushed.  As 
his  chief  proceeded,  Luke's  soul  rose  through  indig 
nation  to  red  revolt.  By  the  time  that  Leighton 
ceased  speaking,  Luke,  except  for  two  spots  of  crim 
son  on  his  cheeks,  was  captain  of  his  rage.  He 
leaned  against  the  desk-side  indolently,  his  eyelids 
lowered,  and  when  he  replied  it  was  with  an  indif 
ferent  drawl. 

u  It  doesn't  much  matter  whether  the  engineer  was 
drunk  or  the  signal  man  rattled,"  he  said:  "  the  rail 
flattened,  and  the  bridge  fell.  The  rail  was  drunk 
and  the  bridge  was  rattled." 

Leighton  shook  himself  peevishly. 

"  You're  trying  to  be  humorous,"  he  said. 

"No;  oh,  no,"  said  Luke  gently.  "What  I'm 
getting  at  is,  it  seems  to  me  the  men  who  directly  con 
trolled  this  road  were  directly  responsible  for  its 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  113 

operation.  I  mean  that  the  men  who  authorized 
that  letter,  and  insisted  on  the  policy  it  lays  down, 
are  guilty.  It  strikes  me  they  ought  to  be  either  re 
formed  or  punished." 

"Oh,  hell!"  said  Leighton.  Heretofore,  Luke 
had  always  appeared  to  be  on  his  side,  so  that  the 
District-Attorney  did  not  know  the  meaning  of  his 
assistant's  outward  calm.  "  Those  letters  aren't 
legal  evidence  enough." 

"  I  think  they  are,  Leighton.  Besides,  I  think 
there  are  times  when  moral  evidence  goes  ahead  <yf 
legal  evidence,  and  ought  to — and  I  think  this  is  one 
of  those  times." 

"  Well,"  said  Leighton,  "  I  don't.     So  that  ends 


it." 


"  Of  course,"  Luke  calmly  pursued,  "  if  you  could 
make  these  fellows  re-lay  the  road,  it  might  be  worth 
while  to  do  no  more  than  scare  them,  at  least  if  you 
don't  consider  the  political  ethics  and  consider  only 
the  immediate  protection  of  life." 

"  I  told  you  I'd  take  care  of  the  regulation  of  the 
road  as  soon  as  I  was  re-elected." 

"Ye-es.     But  could  you?" 

"  Certainly  I  could." 

"  I  should  say  that  once  they'd  got  their  letters 
back,  you'd  be  in  their  power." 

Leighton  got  to  his  feet.  He  was  angry.  He 
faced  Luke,  who  did  not  shift  his  lazy  pose. 


ii4  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Look  here,"  he  said,  "  we've  been  friends,  and 
you've  done  good  work  for  me,  especially  this  after 


noon " 


'  Thanks,"  said  Luke. 

"  But  it  looks  as  if  the  time  had  come  when  you'd 
better  understand  who's  the  head  of  this  office." 

"  You  are,"  Luke  assured  his  chief;  and  then 
added :"  I'm  glad  to  say." 

"  Well,  then,  Huber,  I've  got  to  tell  you  that  if 
you  don't  act  accordingly,  we  must  part  company." 

Luke  raised  his  listless  eyes. 

"  You've  quite  made  up  your  mind  to  do  this  thing, 
Leighton?" 

"  Let  you  go?    Not  if  you'll  only  be  reasonable." 

"  I  mean  this  thing  about  the  letters." 

"  Yes." 

"  You're  going  to  make  use  of  these  fellows' 
money-power  in  politics?  " 

"  It's  already  in  politics.     It  always  has  been." 

"  But  you  are  going  to  try  to  use  it  for  yourself?  " 

11  Yes,  I  am.     It's  my  own  business." 

"  Is  it?    That  money  is  blood-money,  Leighton." 

"You're  a  fool!" 

"  I  know  I  am.  But  it's  you  that  I'm  worried 
about.  You're  quite  determined?" 

"  Absolutely." 

Luke  shrugged  his  shoulders.  He  began  to  move 
slowly  toward  the  door. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  115 

"Here!"  said  Leighton  sharply.  "  Where  're 
you  going?  " 

Luke  scarcely  looked  at  him. 

"  I'm  going  to  write  my  resignation." 

Leighton  was  startled,  but  he  tried  not  to  show  it. 

"  Very  well,"  he  said,  "  write  it.  But  don't  be 
too  fast:  you  may  hand  over  those  letters  first." 

"Letters?"  Luke  seemed  never  to  have  heard 
the  word  before.  "  What  letters?  " 

"  Why  do  you  try  so  hard  to  be  an  ass,  Huber?  " 
The  District-Attorney  extended  his  hand  for  the 
papers  that  he  had  given  Luke  during  the  interview 
with  Rollins.  "  Drop  all  this  resignation  rot. — My 
letters,  of  course." 

Luke's  face  met  Leighton's  fairly. 

"  The  only  letters  I  have  about  me,"  he  said  with 
quiet  distinctness,  "  are  two  that  are  my  property.  I 
bought  them  with  the  last  two  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars  of  my  own  money." 

As  the  words  came  home  to  him,  Leighton's  face 
grew  purple.  His  brows  met  in  a  knot.  At  his  tem 
ples  two  veins  pulsed  visibly. 

"  What's  that?  "  he  cried  with  a  straining  throat. 
"  What's  that?  You Give  them  here  this  min 
ute;  they're  mine!  They're  mine.  They're  mine! 
You  know  damned  well  they're  mine !  " 

He  had  not  counted  on  this.    The  unexpected  dis- 


n6  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

appointment  tossed  him  from  the  summit  of  the 
hopes  to  which,  that  afternoon,  he  had  been  so  un 
expectedly  lifted.  He  made  a  blind  dash  at  Huber. 

Luke's  two  hands  caught  both  of  Leighton's 
wrists.  By  the  exertion  of  a  superior  strength  that 
scarcely  showed  itself,  the  assistant  forced  down  the 
master's  arms  and  held  them  at  his  flanks. 

"  They  are  my  letters,"  said  Luke. 

"  Let  go !  "  Leighton  wrenched  at  the  imprison 
ing  grip;  but  he  wrenched  without  effect  "Let 
me  go !  " 

"  Certainly,"  said  Luke.  He  freed  the  panting 
man.  "  I  merely  wanted  to  protect  myself  and  show 
you  it  wouldn't  help  you  to  use  force." 

Leighton,  his  face  still  contorted,  tried  another 
tone. 

"  It  isn't  fair  of  you,  Huber.  I'm  sorry  I  went  at 
you  that  way;  but  you  know  well  enough  those  letters 
belong  to  me." 

"  They  belong,"  said  Luke,  "  to  the  man  that  can 
make  the  better  use  of  them." 

"What  use  can  you  make?" 

"  A  better  one  than  you  say  you  will." 

"  They  were  brought  here  for  me." 

"  By  a  thief." 

"  Well,  you're  not  going  to  restore  them  to  their 
owner,  are  you?  " 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  117 

"  Perhaps.1' 

"What?"  Leighton  laughed  cynically.  "So 
that's  what  your  moral  tone's  for,  is  it?" 

"  Perhaps." 

"  Oh,  come  on,  Huber,  I  didn't  mean  that.  Any 
how,  you  know,  I  only  asked  you  to  lend  me  the 
money." 

"  The  letters,"  said  Luke  again,  "  belong  to  the 
man  that  can  make  the  better  use  of  them." 

"  I'll  do  the  right  thing  by  you,  Huber,  if  you  give 
them  back  to  me." 

"  Thank  you.  The  real  owner  of  the  letters  can 
do  more — when  I'm  for  sale." 

Leighton  bent  forward  and  began  to  whisper. 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do  for  you  politically,"  he 
began.  "  I'll " 

"  No  thank  you,"  said  Luke. 

"  Well,  then," — Leighton,  his  face  now  white 
from  fear  of  loss,  appeared  to  capitulate — "  give 
them  back  and  I'll  use  them  the  way  you  want  them 
used." 

The  two  men's  eyes  probed  one  another. 

"  I  don't  believe  you,"  said  Luke. 

It  was  final,  and  it  drove  Leighton  back  to  his 
purple  rage. 

"I'll  ruin  you!"  he  threatened.  "And  they'll 
ruin  you.  Go  ahead  and  resign.  Resign?  You 


nS  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

can't.  You're  fired!  Do  you  hear  that?  You're 
fired !  Now  go  and  try  to  do  something.  You  can't 
do  a  thing  but  sell  those  letters  to  the  people  they 
were  stolen  from.  If  you  try  that,  I'll  show  you  up, 
and  if  you  try  anything  else  with  those  people,  they'll 
bury  you  so  deep  nobody  ever  can  dig  down  far 
enough  to  find  you.  Do  you  know  who  you're  up 
against  when  you  buck  that  crowd?  They  won't  let 
you  walk  the  same  earth  with  them !  Go  on.  You'll 
be  killed,  and  I'll  be  damned  glad  of  it.  Fight  them, 
will  you?  You  might  as  well  draw  a  gun  on  God 
Almighty!  Now,  then,  get  out  of  here.  Get  out, 
or  I'll  have  you  kicked  out !  " 


CHAPTER  VI 

To  his  office  on  the  twentieth  floor  of  a  Wall 
Street  skyscraper — that  office  with  the  mahogany 
table  at  its  center  and  the  engraving  of  George 
Washington  between  two  windows — the  master 
came  at  his  usual  time  on  the  morning  of  the  day 
following  the  North  Bridge  wreck.  He  was  dressed 
neatly,  as  always,  in  a  suit  of  russet  brown.  Breath 
ing  visibly,  but  noiselessly,  he  passed  the  resting  ticker 
and  walked  to  one  of  the  windows  overlooking  the 
labyrinth.  His  near-sighted,  beady  eyes  peered  to 
ward  the  web  of  streets  below,  on  the  cross-threads 
of  which  the  black  dots  that  were  hurrying  men  and 
women  bobbed  like  struggling  flies. 

The  master  rang  for  his  secretary. 

"Rollins,"  he  said,  "  what's  in  the "  He 

stopped.  He  had  not  looked  up,  yet  he  asked-: 
"What's  the  matter  with  you  this  morning?" 

"  Nothing,"  said  Rollins.  "  I "  He  coughed 

behind  his  hand.  "  I  didn't  sleep  well  last  night." 

"  Take  more  exercise,"  said  his  master.  "  What's 
in  the  mail?  " 

"  Thirty  letters  that  need  your  personal  attention, 


sir." 


119 


120  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Nimbly  the  master  ran  them  through  his  short 
and  stumpy  fingers,  the  tips  of  which  were  delicately 
rounded.  He  dictated  his  terse  instructions.  With 
the  daily  routine  again  in  motion,  Rollins  recaught 
his  employer's  calm. 

"  Simpson  has  the  begging  letters?  " 

"  Yes,  sir.'7 

"  I  guess,"  said  the  master  in  his  most  common 
place  tone,  "  there  were  more  than  the  usual  num 
ber  of  anonymous  threats." 

"  Only  ten  or  twelve  more." 

"  Burn  them." 

"  Yes,  sir.     I  always  do." 

"  And,  Rollins,  draw  up  a  letter  to  the  cancer 
hospital  and  tell  the  management  I  have  decided  to 
give  them  a  special  ward  for  fibroid  tumor  cases. 
Their  lawyers  may  consult  with  Judge  Stein;  I  gave 
him  the  details  last  evening.  Bring  me  the  letter  for 


revision." 


"  Yes,  sir." 

The  master  proceeded  through  his  customary 
schedule. 

"  Rollins,"  he  said,  when  it  was  at  last  completed 
and  the  secretary  had  been  recalled.  "  Mr.  Hal- 
lett  and  Mr.  Rivington  will  be  here  " — he  consulted 
his  warrh — "  in  five  minutes.  We  are  on  no  account 
to  be  disturbed." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  121 

Hallett  and  Rivington  came  in,  five  minutes  later. 
Hallett  looked  angry,  and  Rivington  frightened. 
Though  the  hour  was  early,  Hallett's  white  waist 
coat,  fresh  every  morning,  showed  wrinkles,  and  its 
wearer  chewed  hard  at  an  unlighted  cigar;  there  was 
a  deep  perpendicular  line  over  his  short,  thick  nose. 
Rivington,  immaculate,  pulled  at  his  slightly  gray 
mustache. 

"  Good-morning,"  said  their  host.  His  voice  was 
as  nearly  cheerful  as  it  was  ever.  "  Sit  down." 

They  took  their  places  at  the  table,  where  there 
was  a  pad  of  scribbling  paper  and  a  freshly  sharp 
ened  pencil  before  each.  Their  host  sat  at  the  head 
of  the  table,  his  hands  flat  upon  the  table-top,  their 
fingers  extended,  his  elbows  pointing  ceilingward. 

Rivington  began  at  the  midst  of  what  worried 
him. 

"  It's  a  terrible  thing!  "  he  groaned.  "  Think  of 
it;  twenty-five  people — and  the  women  too!  " 

Hallett's  comment  was  almost  a  bark. 

"  As  soon  as  the  coroner's  jury  lets  'em  down 
easy,"  he  said,  "  we've  got  to  see  that  everybody's 
fired,  from  the  division-superintendent  to  the  presi 
dent  of  the  road;  that's  what  we've  got  to  do. 
There's  one  kind  of  carelessness  that's  not  much  bet 
ter  than  murder." 

"  Twenty-five  people !  "  repeated  Rivington.    The 


122  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

numbers  seemed  to  hypnotize  him;  he  made  a  futile 

gesture.  "  And  the  morning  papers Their 

tone I  don't  like  it." 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  watched  them 
both,  but  said  nothing. 

"  Oh,  the  newspapers  never  worry  me,"  said  Hal- 
lett.  "  We  can  stop  all  but  one  or  two,  and  nobody 
cares  what  they  say,  anyhow.  They've  been  talkin' 
for  years.  They've  got  to  fill  their  columns." 

"  Then  there's  the  Board  meeting,"  said  Riving- 

ton.  "  Next  Thursday I  don't  see Really 

I  don't." 

"  The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  M.  &  N.'s  all 
right,"  Hallett  reassured  him. 

"  Perhaps.  But  then,  too,  there  is  this  new  re 
form  element  in  town.  Talk  of  a  fusion  movement: 

a  fourth  candidate  for  District-Attorney They 

will  be  only  too  eager  to  get  hold  of  something,  and 

this  terrible  accident It  will  give  them  just  what 

they  want." 

"  They  can't  elect." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure.  The  people — they  aren't 
what  they  used  to  be.  Something — I  don't  know 
what — has  taken  possession  of  them." 

Hallett  bobbed  assent  to  that. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  nowadays  as  soon  as  a  man  gets 
a  vote  he  stops  minding  his  own  business.  But  we've 
still  got  our  grip  on  the  wires." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  123 

"  They  may  break."  Rivington's  fingers  re 
turned  to  their  tugging  at  his  mustache.  "  The 
wires,  I  mean.  It's  ugly.  Twenty-five  dead  and  a 
hundred  hurt " 

"  We  didn't  hurt  'em." 

Rivington  looked  toward  the  man  at  the  head  of 
the  table,  but  he  sat  crouched  and  silent. 

uNo,"  said  Rivington;  "  but "  His  sentence 

ended  in  a  helpless  waving  of  the  hand. 

"Then  what  are  you  worryin'  about?"  Hallett 
challenged.  "  We  were  only  try  in'  to  keep  up  divi 
dends.  We  had  to  choose  between  a  little  risk  and 
protecting  the  stockholders.  Lots  of  the  stockhold 
ers  are  widows  and  orphans.  Besides,  it  wasn't  a 
real  risk;  it  was  a  recognized,  legitimate  business 
risk.  Lots  of  other  roads  do  it  right  along.  Our 
own  roads  do." 

"  That  bridge "  said  Rivington. 

"  The  state  inspectors  passed  it  a  month  ago. 
And  they  passed  the  rails,  too.  It's  all  up  to  them." 

In  his  turn,  Hallett  glanced  at  the  man  at  the 
head  of  the  table.  He  saw  the  man's  hairy  hands, 
fat  and  white  against  the  mahogany,  begin  to  move 
as  they  always  began  to  move  before  he  made  a 
verbal  attack  upon  conversation ;  but  the  man  did  not 
speak. 

"  I  know,"  Rivington  was  saying,  "  but  with  the 


124  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

four  candidates  for  the  district-attorneyship  all  look 
ing  for  vote-getting  material " 

"  Buy  'em,"  said  Hallett. 

"Four?" 

"Who's  the  fourth?" 

"  They  haven't  chosen  him  yet;  but " 

"  Buy  'em,"  repeated  Hallett. 

"  Out  of  the  four  there  might  be  one  we 
Couldn't " 

"  Anybody  can  buy  anybody.  There  are  more 
ways  than  one.  Anyhow,  we're  not  even  directors." 

"  We  own  the  road.     Practically " 

"  Nobody  knows  that." 

"  It  seems  to  me " 

"They  don't!"  Hallett  spat  to  the  floor  a  bit 
of  tobacco  that,  bitten  from  the  end  of  his  cigar,  had 
clung  to  his  lips.  "  They  only  think  they  do.  It'd 
be  the  hardest  thing  in  the  world  to  prove  that  was 
ever  tried." 

"Would  it?"  Rivington  questioned.  "I  really 
believe " 

The  quick,  cold  voice  of  the  third  man  flashed 
across  their  talk.  It  was  as  if  he  leaped  at  them. 

"  We  may  own  the  road,"  he  said;  "  but  we  don't 
operate  it.  Not  one  of  us  has  officially  any  adminis 
trative  power  in  the  matter  of  its  operation.  You 
gentlemen  have  forgotten  that."  He  smiled:  his 
teeth  were  pointed. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  125 

"  Still,"  said  Rivington,  "  if  the  fusion  move 
ment " 

He  stopped  there,  not  because  of  his  habit  of 
speaking  in  tangents,  but  because  the  door  opened, 
and  an  old  man  timidly  paused  at  its  threshold. 

The  master  of  the  office  turned  his  head  slowly. 

"Simpson?"  he  said. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  man  at  the  door. 

"  What  does  this  mean?    Where's  Rollins?  " 

"  He  was  using  my  room  to  compose  that  letter 
about  the  hospital,  and  so  I  took  his  place." 

"  Didn't  he  tell  you  we  were  not  to  be  dis 
turbed?" 

"Yes,  sir;  but  this  man" — Simpson  held  out  an 
envelope — "  got  by  everybody.  He  told  me  you 
would  see  him  at  once  if  you  only  received  his  mes 
sage." 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  reached  for  the 
envelope.  He  read  a  card  that  it  had  contained. 

"  Show  him  in,"  he  said. 

He  waited  until  Simpson  had  left  to  obey.  Then, 
without  wasting  a  glance  on  his  associates,  he  ex 
plained: 

"  This  is  the  card  of  a  man  called  Luke  Huber, 
Assistant  District- Attorney.  He's  written  on  it: 
'  Five  minutes  in  regard  to  the  North  Bridge  wreck 
and  your  letters  about  it.' ' 


126  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Letters  ?  "  said  Hallett.    "  What  letters  ?  " 

As  he  replied,  the  strong  jaw  of  the  man  at  the 
head  of  the  table  worked  as  if  he  were  chewing. 

"  That's  what  I  mean  to  find  out." 

"Here?    Now?"  Rivington  gasped. 

The  man  addressed  nodded.  When  a  nod  could 
save  words,  he  saved  words. 

"Is  that  the  careful  thing?"  asked  Hallett. 
"  I'll  bet  his  card's  a  bluff  and  he  never  expected  to 
get  in  at  all." 

"  That  is  precisely  why  I  am  having  him  in." 

"  Mr.  Huber,"  announced  Simpson. 

Huber  was  still  a  young  man.  He  was  so  young, 
and  his  youth  was  so  ostentatious,  that  he  immedi 
ately  courted  the  rebuke  once  administered  to  Pitt. 
Moreover,  he  seemed  to  lack  energy.  He  was  thin; 
his  face,  though  pleasant,  was  white.  The  lids 
dropped  wearily  over  eyes  that  were  at  first  veiled 
from  the  three  men  who  looked  up,  but  did  not  rise, 
at  his  entrance.  His  mouth,  the  lips  of  which  were 
only  a  pale  pink,  might  have  appeared  firm,  but 
would  certainly  have  given  the  impression  of  being 
tired  of  firmness,  and,  when  he  bowed  gravely  to  his 
host,  his  bristling  head  inclined  itself  so  slowly  and 
so  slightly  that  the  effort  of  the  inclination,  whether 
mental  or  physical,  was  insultingly  apparent. 

There   was   no    form   of  presentation.      Instead, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  127 

there  was  a  pause  that  only  Huber  seemed  not  to 
notice.  Rivington  drummed  on  the  table  with  his 
long  fingers.  Hallett  chewed  his  cigar.  The  other 
man  smiled  so  enigmatically  that  it  was  impossible 
to  say  whether  he  intended  to  welcome  or  was  amused 
by  his  friends'  discomfiture. 

"  Bring  a  chair  for  Mr.  Huber." 

Simpson  did  as  he  was  bid. 

Luke  deposited  a  carefully  brushed  hat  on  the 
table.  Then  he  sank  into  the  proffered  chair  oppo 
site  the  leader  of  the  trio  and  extended  his  long  legs 
under  the  mahogany.  His  feet  touched  Rivington's, 
and  Rivington  jumped. 

"  Well?  "  asked  the  man  at  the  head  of  the  table. 

Huber  did  not  raise  his  heavy  lids. 

"  I  am  glad  I  found  you  three  together,"  he  said 
slowly  in  a  low  and  extremely  gentle  voice,  "  be 
cause  you  are  the  three  men  that  control  the  rail 
road." 

Hallett  grinned  a  broad  grin.  This  young  fel 
low  talked  as  if  there  were  but  one  railroad  in  which 
the  group  was  interested. 

"What  railroad?"  he  asked. 

Luke  slowly  drew  in  his  legs.  He  regarded  the 
figure  of  the  Persian  rug  that  happened  to  be  between 
the  points  of  his  patent-leather  boots. 

"  The  railroad,"  said  he,  "  that  I  suppose  you  have 
been  talking  most  about  this  morning." 


128  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"The  Manhattan  &  Niagara ?"  blurted  Riving- 
ton. 

"  We're  not  directors  of  that  road,"  said  Hallett 
hurriedly. 

"  No,"  agreed  Rivington. 

"  No,"  said  Luke,  quite  as  heartily,  "  you  aren't 
directors,  but  you  direct  it." 

"  We  don't,"  snapped  Rivington. 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  raised  a  soothing 
hand.  He  was  still  smiling. 

"  Come,  come,"  he  said,  with  an  air  of  good 
nature  that  his  friends  had  seldom  seen  him  assume 
during  business  hours.  "  We're  all  gentlemen,  I'm 
sure.  Anything  that  Mr.  Huber  wants  to  say  to  us 
in  confidence " 

Huber  interrupted. 

"  I  never  talk  in  confidence,"  said  he;  "and  I 
don't  want  anybody  to  say  anything  to  me  that  he 
would  be  ashamed  to  say  in  public." 

His  eyes  were  still  hidden,  and  he  still  spoke 
slowly  and  gently;  but  the  mere  import  of  his  words 
brought  up  short  even  the  leader  of  the  trio  before 
him.  That  one's  manner  changed.  He  was  curt. 

"  We  are  busy  men,  Mr.  Huber,"  he  said. 
"  There  are  not  many  people  in  New  York  that  we 
would  have  allowed  to  take  up  our  time  this  morning. 
What  do  you  want?  " 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  129 

Luke  studied  the  figure  on  the  rug. 

"  I  want  you  three,"  he  said  in  a  tone  not  to  be 
quickened,  "  to  tear  up  every  mile  of  rails  on  the 
M.  &  N.  and  replace  those  pieces  of  scrap-iron  with 
rails  of  a  grade  fit  to  bear  the  traffic  they  have  to 
carry." 

Rivington's  drumming  fingers  closed  into  his 
palms.  Hallett  let  out  an  ugly  laugh.  Only  the  man 
at  the  head  of  the  table,  again  changing  his  manner, 
equaled  Luke  in  tranquillity. 

"  Really,  Mr.  Huber,"  he  said  pleasantly,  "  with 
out  admitting  for  a  moment  that  we  have  the  power 
to  do  what  you  suggest,  don't  you  think  your  request 
is  a  rather  large  one?"  He  had  the  air  of  indul 
gently  correcting  a  mistaken  child. 

The  young  man,  gazing  at  the  rug,  shook  his  round 
head. 

11  No,"  he  said,  "  not  so  large  for  you  as  its  al 
ternative." 

"And  that?    It  is " 

Rivington  had  put  the  question,  but  it  was  toward 
the  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  that  Luke  as  he 
shot  out  his  sudden  reply,  raised  his  eyes. 

"  Jail,"  said  Luke. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  threaten  us?  "  cried  Rivington 
angrily. 

Hallett  laughed. 


130  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  only  smiled. 

u  Not  at  all,"  said  Luke.  "  I  am  merely  stating 
a  fact.  In  coming  here,  the  only  thing  I  hesitated 
about  was  whether  it  would  be  better  for  the  people 
to  have  safe  transportation  immediately  guaranteed 
or  to  have  you  three  in  jail." 

'  You  seem  to  forget,  young  man,"  said  Hallett, 
"  who  it  was  elected  the  man  that  made  you  assistant 
district-attorney." 

Luke  gave  him  the  briefest  of  glances. 

"  It  was  because  I  found  out  who  elected  him  that 
I  resigned  the  job,"  he  answered.  "  I  have  just  been 
offered  the  Municipal  League's  nomination  for  Dis 
trict-Attorney.  When  /  am  elected,  it  will  be  by  the 
people." 

"That  will  be  about  2000  A.D.,"  sneered  Hallett. 

Luke  shrugged  his  thin  shoulders  and  returned  his 
gaze  toward  the  leader  of  the  trio. 

"  A  bridge  falls  on  one  of  your  roads  in  this 
county,"  he  said.  "  It  kills  twenty-five  people  and 
wounds  a  hundred — all  passengers  in  one  of  your 
trains.  You  will  say  the  state  inspectors  declared 
the  bridge  O.  K.  Maybe  they  did,  though  they  ought 
to  go  to  the  electric  chair  for  it.  That  doesn't  mat 
ter.  What  I  can  prove  by  thirty  witnesses  is  that 
the  train  left  the  bridge  before  the  bridge  fell.  A 
rail  flattened  and  threw  the  train.  Instead  of  send- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  131 

ing  you  men  to  jail — and  only  because  I  think  this  is 
better  for  the  safety  of  the  public — I  will  give  you 
one  month  to  begin  laying  decent  rails  on  this  road — 
actually  get  bona  fide  work  under  way.  If  you 
don't  do  that,  I'll  make  public  the  whole  truth,  get 
you  indicted,  go  into  court  as  a  witness  and  produce 
two  letters,  one  forwarded  to  you  and  the  other 
signed  by  you.  The  first  of  these  is  a  letter  to  the 
president  of  the  road  written  by  the  steel  manufac 
turers;  it  warns  him  that  the  cheap  rails  he's  ordered 
are  dangerous :  that  letter  he  sent  to  you.  The  sec 
ond  is  a  letter  from  you  to  the  president  of  the  road 
in  which  you  say  you  want  the  poor-grade  rails  used 
because  you  don't  want  to  increase  the  running  ex 
penses,  and  you  order  a  general  keeping-down  of  the 
road's  expenses  because  of  a  plan  for  you  three  to 
unload  your  stock  along  about  this  December." 

Luke  rose.  He  relapsed  into  the  weary  young 
man  of  ten  minutes  before. 

"  You  have  one  month,"  he  said. 

He  picked  up  his  hat,  rubbed  it  with  a  caressing 
hand,  and  left  the  room. 

The  three  that  he  left  stared  at  one  another.  Then 
both  Hallett  and  Rivington  looked  at  their  leader. 

"  It's  an  infamous — it  must  be  an  infamous  lie !  " 
cried  Rivington.  "  Letters  like  that — men  don't 
write  them !  " 


132  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Without  moving  a  muscle  of  his  face,  the  man  at 
the  head  of  the  table  looked  at  Rivington. 

"  All  men  say  they  don't,"  he  corrected,  "  and  all 
men  do." 

"What?"  asked  Hallett.  "  You're  joking,  and 
this  fellow  can't  ever  make  it  good.  It's  a  bluff." 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  the  man  at  the  head  of  the 
table,  "  it's  the  truth." 


CHAPTER  VII 

§  i.  When  Luke,  on  the  afternoon  preceding  his 
Wall  Street  interview,  had  walked  out  of  Leighton's 
office  and  the  city's  employ,  it  was  with  no  certain 
plan  for  further  action.  His  years  of  experience  as 
an  assistant  prosecutor  had  demonstrated  to  him  that 
something  was  drastically  wrong  with  the  modern 
administration  of  justice  and  practice  of  the  law;  his 
life  in  New  York  had  shown  him  the  evil  influence  of 
the  money-power  that  seemed  to  be  set  in  motion  by 
the  author  of  the  Rollins  letter  and  certainly  cor 
rupted  the  entire  body  of  the  nation,  and  his  political 
work  had  discovered  to  him  what  he  came  to  con 
sider  the  inherent  rottenness  of  the  organized  politi 
cal  parties.  The  effect  of  all  this  was  made  acute  by 
the  horror  at  the  North  Bridge  wreck  and  the  cul 
mination  of  his  mistrust  in  Leighton.  Luke's  sole 
immediate  sensation  was  that  of  a  man  who  finds  him 
self  in  a  bog:  he  did  not  think  of  draining  the  bog 
for  the  benefit  of  future  pedestrians;  he  thought  only 
of  extricating  himself  from  the  mire. 

That  night  at  his  club,  however,  he  began  to  con 
sider  the  larger  aspects  of  the  case.  He  was  in  the 

133 


i34  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

writing-room,  intent  on  composing  for  the  next  even 
ing's  papers  a  statement  of  his  reasons  for  parting 
company  with  Leighton.  In  formulating  these,  he 
found  his  charges  to  be  precisely  the  charges  recently 
formulated  by  the  group  of  municipal  reformers  who 
were  clamoring  for  a  fusion  of  the  best  elements  of 
all  parties  to  elect,  by  honest  methods,  honest  men 
that  would  purge  New  York  of  its  civic  shame.  He 
recalled  how  this  Municipal  Reform  League,  growing 
steadily,  had  worried  Leighton,  and  how  its  pro 
moters  prophesied  that,  if  successful  in  the  place  of 
its  origin,  it  might  well  spread  throughout  the  coun 
try.  When  he  first  heard  of  it,  Luke  had  been  too 
deep  in  the  affairs  of  his  chief  to  be  warmed  by  it; 
but  to-night  his  vision  was  cleared. 

He  telephoned  to  two  of  the  League's  leaders. 
They  came  to  his  club  and  talked  with  him  until  long 
past  midnight,  themselves  telephoning  inquiries  and 
instructions  to  friends  and  lieutenants,  and  summon 
ing  other  leaders  to  join  them. 

Luke  told  them  much.  He  betrayed  no  secrets  of 
his  recent  employer,  but  he  could  honorably  tell 
enough  to  make  it  clear  to  them  that  their  belief 
in  the  necessity  of  reform  was  correct,  enough  to 
have  weight  with  the  voters  should  he  speak  to  them 
in  the  new  cause.  His  public  record,  it  appeared, 
had  long  impressed  the  reformers;  the  firmness 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  135 

underlying  his  slow  habit  of  talk,  and  the  determina 
tion  imperfectly  covered  by  his  lazy  manner,  im 
pressed  them  now.  He  moved  and  fired  them. 

The  Rollins  letter  he  did  not  mention.  He  was 
more  than  once  tempted,  but  he  had  resolved  upon 
provisional  silence  before  ever  he  sent  for  these  lead 
ers.  He  weighed  carefully  the  merits  of  the  courses 
open  to  him  and  decided  that,  large  as  would  be 
the  benefit  of  a  public  airing  of  his  charges,  and 
excellent  as  might  prove  the  salutary  example  of  a 
prison  term  for  America's  chief  financiers,  the  air 
ing  might  be  lessened  by  those  financiers'  subtle  influ 
ences  upon  popular  opinion,  the  prison  term  might 
be  escaped  through  similar  influences,  and  all  good 
results  would  in  any  case  be  long  delayed.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  was  evident  to  him,  in  his  present 
frame  of  mind,  that  the  immediate  safety  of  the  M. 
&  N.'s  patrons  was  paramount,  and  that  this  safety 
could  probably  be  secured  by  threatening  those 
morally  responsible  for  it.  Such  a  threat,  with  a 
rigid  time-limit,  he  therefore  elected  to  admin 
ister. 

The  first  result  of  his  conference  with  the  reform 
ers  was  unexpected.  At  eight  o'clock  next  morning, 
three  of  their  most  prominent  men,  who  had  not  been 
with  him  on  the  night  before,  came  to  his  apart 
ments  at  the  Arapahoe  in  Thirty-ninth  Street.  They 


136  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

had  been  in  all-night  consultation,  and  they  told  him 
that  their  organization  had  determined  to  put  a  full 
ticket  in  the  field  at  the  coming  municipal  election, 
but  to  center  efforts  in  a  struggle  for  the  district- 
attorneyship :  they  had  chosen  him  for  their  candi 
date. 

Luke,  in  dressing-gown  and  pajamas,  his  un- 
brushed  hair  more  than  ever  erect,  looked  from  one 
of  his  callers  to  the  other.  There  was  Venable,  a 
man  of  small  but  independent  means,  who  had  grown 
gray  in  the  long  war  for  civic  betterment,  meeting 
defeat  at  the  polls  and,  what  is  harder  to  bear,  dis 
appointment  in  elected  candidates,  and  again  and 
again  emerging  to  hope  and  fight  on;  Nelson,  a 
successful  wholesale  druggist,  whose  business  seemed 
divorced  from  politics,  and  whose  hobby  was  the 
improvement  of  political  conditions;  and  Yeates,  a 
young  man  of  family  and  fortune  who  belonged  to 
Luke's  club.  Luke  was  flattered  and  confident,  but 
did  not  show  it. 

"  Do  you  really  think  I  can  do  it?"  he  asked 
slowly.  "  Do  you  think  I  am  the  best  man  for  the 
job?" 

Each  of  the  committee  assured  him  he  was.  They 
said  he  had  given  a  good  account  of  himself  as 
assistant  district-attorney,  won  influential  friends  in 
his  daily  life,  and  secured,  through  his  political 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  137 

speech-making  for  Leighton,  a  strong  following 
among  the  voters. 

"  Of  course,"  persisted  Luke,  "  it's  unnecessary  to 
ask  men  of  your  standing  that  there  shan't  be  any 
thing  but  clean  politics  in  our  campaign." 

Venable  tossed  his  head  proudly. 

"  My  record  is  a  guarantee  of  that,"  he  said. 

"  No  undue  influence?"  asked  Luke.  "No  out 
side  interests  coming  in  to  boss  us  or  affect  us  in  any 
way?" 

"Rot!"  said  Yeates. 

"  And  I  am  to  have  an  absolutely  free  hand?" 

They  assured  him  of  that. 

Luke's  lowered  lids  hid  his  eyes,  but  his  eyes 
gleamed.  Here,  at  last,  was  his  Great  Chance. 
Here  was  what  he  had  lived  and  hoped  for.  He 
wanted  to  shout  his  war-cry,  to  go  out  and  fight  at 
once.  Would  he  be  worthy?  The  wing  of  that 
doubt  brushed  the  farthest  edges  of  his  conscience, 
but  he  was  young,  and  he  did  not  heed  it.  He 
thought  of  all  that  he  could  do  with  this  oppor 
tunity;  and  he  thought,  too,  of  Betty  Forbes. 

He  had  not  seen  much  of  Betty  for  some  weeks. 
The  lethargy  that  the  slow  process  of  his  recent  dis 
illusionment  flung  over  him,  had  left  him  despairing 
of  her,  kept  her  beyond  his  reach.  But  now  he 
saw  the  way — saw  that  the  way  to  win  his  ideals 


138  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

of  honorable  victory  was  also  the  way  to  win 
her. 

He  asked  again  a  hundred  questions,  some  that 
he  had  asked  of  his  other  counselors  the  night  be 
fore  and  more  that  he  had  not :  questions  about  pur 
pose,  ways-and-means,  finances,  organization,  head 
quarters,  district  leaders,  probable  support,  the  tem 
per  of  the  public  mind.  To  all  of  them  he  received 
sanguine  answers. 

"  And  your  other  candidates?"  asked  Luke. 
"The  Mayor?  Comptroller?  President  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen  and  the  Borough  Presidents?  " 

They  gave  him  the  names  of  known  and  honest 
men. 

Luke  stood  up,  but  his  air  was  the  languid  air 
that  had  become  part  of  him. 

"  Good,"  he  said,  "  of  course,  I'm  pleased  that 
you  think  of  me  as  you  do,  and  I  accept." 

§  2.  He  would  be  a  busy  man  now,  but  he  must 
have  that  morning  and  afternoon  to  himself.  How 
ever  much  he  might  want  to  start  his  campaign,  he 
must  make  that  visit  to  Wall  Street,  and  after 
luncheon  he  intended  to  go  to  Betty. 

The  Wall  Street  interview  seemed  to  him  as  suc 
cessful  as  he  could  have  expected.  He  was  unterri- 
fied  by  the  strength  of  the  fortress  to  be  attacked, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  139 

but  he  had  not  looked  forward  to  speedy  surrender, 
so  he  was  satisfied  with  the  conviction  that  he  af 
fected  the  three  financiers  more  than  they  cared  to 
show.  If  they  did  not  obey  him,  he  would  make  the 
Rollins  letters  a  part  of  his  appeal  to  the  electors;  but 
he  felt  that,  in  the  end,  he  would  be  offered  obedi 
ence. 

He  lunched  leisurely  in  the  cafe  attached  to  his 
apartment  house,  and  then  went  to  his  own  room  to 
change  his  clothes  before  seeking  Betty.  He  had 
completed  the  change  and  was  about  to  leave  when 
the  telephone  rang  and  the  voice  of  the  clerk  below 
stairs  announced  a  visitor: 

"  Judge  Marcus  F.  Stein." 

It  had  begun  already.  Luke  knew  who  Stein  was, 
though  the  two  had  never  met.  The  man's  title  had 
been  earned  by  a  political  appointment  to  fill  the  un- 
expired  term  of  a  judge  that  died  while  on  the  bench. 
Stein  had  begun  his  career  as  a  young  lawyer  who 
specialized  in  damage  suits  against  the  N.  Y.  &  N.  J. 
railway.  He  was  once  charged,  before  the  Bar  As 
sociation — though  the  charges  were  never  proved — 
with  being  a  "  hospital  runner  " :  that  is,  with  em 
ploying  men  to  hurry  to  the  hospital,  or  the  scenes 
of  accidents,  and  induce  victims  to  retain  Stein  to 
press  their  claims  for  damages  against  the  railroad 
on  which  they  had  been  injured.  By  devoting  his 


140  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

best  efforts  against  the  N.  Y.  &  N.  J.,  he  tried  to 
make  the  corporation  realize  that  it  would  be  cheaper 
to  employ  him  than  to  fight  him,  and  he  was,  indeed, 
at  last  given  a  place  on  the  legal  staff  of  the  com 
pany's  claim  department.  There  was  an  ugly  story 
to  the  effect  that,  for  a  brief  time  before  this  charge 
was  openly  announced,  he  received  a  salary  from  the 
road  while  apparently  acting  for  claimants  against  it 
and  inducing  them  to  compromise  their  claims  for 
trivial  sums. 

It  was  a  subject  of  common  rumor  at  the  New 
York  Bar.  Stein  soon  worked  his  way  to  the  head 
of  the  claim  department  and  thoroughly  reorganized 
it.  He  used  old  tactics  for  his  new  employers:  he 
had  the  news  of  all  accidents  immediately  communi 
cated  to  him,  whereupon  he  would  despatch  his 
agents,  with  no  loss  of  time,  to  the  hospital,  there 
to  persuade  the  wounded,  half  stupefied  by  pain  or 
drugs,  to  sign  releases  in  return  for  pittances  in 
ready  money.  It  was  said  he  built  up  a  secret  service, 
composed  of  men  and  women  from  private  detective 
agencies,  whose  duty  it  was  to  discover  discreditable 
secrets  in  the  lives  of  such  claimants  as  refused  to 
compromise,  or,  failing  in  discovery,  to  manufacture 
or  invent  such  incidents.  One  married  woman  from 
Syracuse,  who  had  been  injured  in  a  wreck  in  New 
York  and  came  there  to  press  her  suit,  was  in- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  141 

veigled  into  a  friendship  with  a  woman  detective 
commissioned  to  engage  a  neighboring  room  in  the 
house  where  the  plaintiff  took  temporary  lodgings. 
The  detective  succeeded  in  getting  the  claimant 
drunk  and  brought  her,  in  this  condition,  with  two 
of  the  road's  employees,  to  a  house  in  which,  when 
the  four  were  partially  unclothed,  another  detective 
took  a  flashlight  photograph  of  them.  Then  when 
the  victim's  case  was  called  for  trial,  she  was  told 
that,  unless  she  dropped  her  suit,  the  picture  would 
be  shown  to  her  husband.  By  methods  of  this  sort, 
Stein  was  said  to  have  reduced  his  road's  expenses 
for  damages  by  two-thirds  in  three  years. 

Directly  from  his  desk  in  the  offices  of  the  N.  Y. 
&  N.  J.,  Stein  was  appointed  to  the  bench,  where  he 
did  not  cease  his  usefulness  to  his  employers.  When 
his  brief  judicial  term  had  ended,  he  took  offices  of 
his  own,  and  cultivated  the  higher  branches  of  cor 
poration  law.  The  men  controlling  the  N.  Y.  & 
N.  J.  controlled  many  other  corporations  and  saw  to 
it  that  Stein  received  a  regular  annual  retainer  as  a 
consulting  lawyer  from  each  of  these.  His  business 
was  not  to  win  cases,  but  so  to  aid  in  directing  his 
clients'  plans  that  they  would  avoid  litigation;  he, 
therefore,  rarely  nowadays  appeared  in  court  and, 
though  not  one  of  the  most  learned  men  so  engaged 
by  his  principals,  he  was  one  of  the  most  serviceable, 


142  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

because  to  his  merely  crafty  skill  in  the  law  he  added 
a  deep  knowledge  of  practical  politics  and  a  wide  in 
timacy  with  politicians. 

Luke's  first  impulse  was  to  deny  himself  to  this 
caller,  for  he  wanted  to  hurry  to  Betty  and  he  thought 
there  might  be  a  strategic  value  in  refusing  to  nego 
tiate  with  any  emissary.  Curiosity,  however,  proved 
strong,  and  he  reflected  that  the  emissary  might  just 
possibly  come  with  a  word  of  complete  capitulation. 

"  Show  him  up,"  said  Luke  into  the  telephone. 

The  ex- Judge  was  an  imposing  figure.  He  was  big 
and  broad  and  frock-coated,  and  he  moved  with  be 
fitting  gravity.  His  hair  was  plentiful  and  white,  his 
face  clean-shaven.  He  had  a  strong  nose  and  a  wide, 
firm  mouth,  and  his  eyes  were  large  and  benevolent. 
His  air  was  that  of  a  man  who  has  dealt  with  great 
interests  for  so  many  years  that  they  have  become  the 
weighty  commonplaces  of  his  existence. 

Luke  had  resolved  not  to  shake  hands  with  his 
visitor,  but  the  Judge  gave  him  no  opportunity  for 
refusal.  He  bowed  courteously,  smiled  politely,  and 
settled  into  the  most  comfortable  of  Luke's  chairs, 
which  he  deliberately  turned  so  that  the  light  from 
the  windows  fell  full  on  his  own  face,  thus  leaving 
Luke  to  front  him  from  the  shadow. 

Luke,  who  had  been  prepared  for  the  contrary 
move,  managed  to  show  no  surprise.  He  sat  down, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  143 

extended  his  legs,  and  lowered  his  eyes.  He  made 
no  inquiry  concerning  the  reason  of  the  Judge's  call : 
he  wanted  the  Judge  to  begin  the  talk. 

Stein  required  no  urging. 

"  I  have  never  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you  be 
fore,  Mr.  Huber,"  he  said,  speaking  with  what  was 
evidently  no  more  than  characteristic  deliberation, 
"  but  I  have  watched  your  career  with  a  great  deal 
of  interest — a  very  great  deal.  It  reminded  me  so 
much  of  my  own  early  struggles."  He  was  looking 
steadily  at  Luke,  whose  eyes  remained  lowered. 
"  You  will  forgive  an  old  man  who  is  a  scarred 
veteran  of  the  law  for  speaking  frankly  with  you 
and  for  taking  such  an  interest,  I'm  sure." 

"  Very  kind  of  you,  indeed,"  Luke  murmured. 

"  I  thought,"  said  the  Judge,  "  that  you  handled 
that  Maretti  case  excellently,  and  the  Dow  trial,  too ; 
you  showed  an  original  cleverness  there.  More  than 
that,  Mr.  Huber,  you  showed  promise.  There  has 
been  a  great  deal  of  promise  in  your  professional 
work,  and  I  thought  I  detected  the  same  promise  in 
the  reports  of  your  political  speeches.  With  influ 
ential  friends — for,  of  course,  everybody  needs  in 
fluential  friends  in  these  days:  people  of  real  and 
solid  standing — you  ought  to  go  far." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Luke. 

"  Now,"  the  Judge  pursued,  "  I  see  by  the  early 


144  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

evening  papers  you  may  be  offered  the  candidacy 
for  District-Attorney  on  the  Municipal  League 
ticket." 

"  I  believe  there  is  some  talk  of  that,  Judge." 

"  Well,  we  need  such  a  movement  as  this  reform 
movement:  we  need  it  badly.  With  proper  backing, 
you  ought  to  win.  With  proper  backing,  of  course." 

Luke  gave  no  sign  of  hearing  this.  Quite  out  of 
the  air  he  drawled: 

"  I  suppose  you  came  about  those  letters,  Judge 
Stein?" 

For  all  the  disturbance  that  he  produced,  he  might 
as  well  have  said  that  it  was  a  pleasant  day,  or  that 
he  expected  rain.  When  his  eyes  at  this  question 
were  raised  to  meet  the  Judge's,  the  benevolent  eyes 
of  the  Judge  did  not  quiver:  like  his  voice,  they  were 
steady  and  deliberate. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  Judge,  "  and  I  had  them  in  mind 
when  I  spoke  of  your  career.  Now,  Mr.  Huber,  my 
friends  think,  and  I  think,  that  you  have  been  a  little 
hasty  and  unreasonable  because — and  remember,  it  is 
an  old  man  who  tells  you  so — you  are  still  rather 
young.  But  because  I  know  you  are  an  able  young 
man,  I  have  told  them  I  was  sure  you  would  see  your 
haste  and  unreasonableness  when  you  came  to  con 
sider  the  matter.  As  their  friend  and  as  a  lawyer 
who  has  watched  your  career  and  remembers  his  own 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  145 

start  in  life,  I  undertook  to  say  so  to  you  and  to 
offer  my  advice." 

Luke's  eyelids  were  again  lowered.  His  hands 
were  clasped  in  his  lap.  To  a  less  astute  man  than 
Stein,  he  might  have  seemed  asleep. 

"  I  shall  be  glad,"  continued  Stein,  "  if  I  can  help 
you  out  of  your  embarrassing  position." 

"  Who  are  your  friends,  Judge?  "  asked  Luke. 

The  Judge  smiled  tolerantly. 

"  Come,  come,  Mr.  Huber,"  he  said;  "you  don't 
expect  me  to  mention  names,  I  know.  All  I  will  say 
on  that  point — all  you  can  justly  ask  me  to  say — is 
that  I  don't  come  from  them  in  my  professional 
capacity.  They  haven't  retained  me  to  do  this.  They 
haven't  even  asked  me  to  do  it.  I  am  acting  entirely 
of  my  own  volition,  and  on  my  own  initiative,  out  of 
good  will  for  all  the  parties  concerned  and  not  least 
of  all  for  you." 

"  Yet  you  seem  prepared  to  plead  their  case." 

"  I  am — on  my  own  initiative,  I  am,  because  their 
case  is  the  right  one,  as  I  am  sure  you  will  end  by 
seeing.  In  the  first  place,  these  letters  are  their  prop 
erty." 

"  I  doubt,"  said  Luke,  "  whether  they  would  go 
into  court  to  prove  property." 

"  I  do  not  think,"  said  the  unruffled  Judge,  "  that 
they  will  go  into  court  for  any  purpose — unless  their 


146  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

burden  of  good  nature  is  rendered  intolerable.  They 
can  afford  to  appeal  to  their  own  conscience,  because 
they  are  morally  clear." 

"Of  the  North  Bridge  wreck?" 

"  Of  the  North  Bridge  wreck,  Mr.  Huber.  Grant 
ing  that  those  letters  are  admissible  evidence — which 
I  shouldn't  grant,  if  I  were  in  the  case — the  one  is 
not  an  expert  declaration;  it  is  merely  an  expression 
of  opinion  from  persons  with  many  grades  of  rails  to 
sell  and  naturally  anxious  to  sell  their  most  expen 
sive  and  most  profitable  grade.  As  for  the  other 
letter,  it  is  informed  by  the  knowledge  of  what 
prompted  the  rail-makers'  opinion,  and  in  itself  offers 
only  a  counter-opinion  based  on  the  writer's  long  and 
successful  experience  with  the  cheaper  rails." 

"  Yes — but  the  accident  happened." 

"  Exactly:  it  merely  happened  and  it  was  an  acci 
dent.  In  other  words,  it  was  something  unforeseen 
and  contrary  to  the  experience  of  the  writer  of  the 
second  letter." 

The  Judge  waited  a  moment  for  a  reply  but,  as 
Luke  gave  none,  presently  continued: 

"  Now,  the  course  I  propose — quite  personally, 
you  will  understand — is  honorable,  harmless,  and  in 
the  best  interests  of  all  concerned:  you,  us,  and  even 
the  public." 

"What  is  it?"  asked  Luke. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  147 

"  All  that  I  would  grant  my  friends  is  the  return 
of  those  letters,  which  are  their  own  property,  and 
are  not  admissible  evidence  in  a  court  of  law.  That 
is  all  I  would  grant  them.  On  their  part,  I  should 
exact  a  pledge  from  them  to  have  better  rails  laid 
throughout  the  suspected  sections  of  the  M.  &  N. 
road." 

Luke's  eyes  opened. 

"  That's  all  /  asked  them  to  do,"  he  said. 

"  Ah,  yes;  but  to  do  it  at  once  would  be  taken  as 
a  public  confession  of  guilt — and  my  friends  are  not 
guilty.  You  will  see  that  the  coroner's  jury  says 


so." 


Luke  relapsed. 

11  It  will,"  he  said.    "  I'm  sure  of  it." 

"  Therefore,  the  thing  must  be  done  slowly  and 
discreetly,  and  meanwhile  we  must  protect  the  public 
by  an  increase  of  track-walkers  and  road-inspectors." 

"  Would  your  friends,"  inquired  Luke,  "  instruct 
the  road  not  to  fight  the  damage  claims  growing  out 
of  the  wreck?" 

"  Of  course  not,"  chuckled  Stein.  "  You  are  too 
good  a  lawyer  to  expect  that,  Mr.  Huber,  and  too 
good  a  lawyer  not  to  know  how  the  sorrow  or 
wounds  of  the  claimants — yes,  and  the  big  appetites 
of  their  attorneys,  too,  I'm  afraid — exaggerate  their 
losses  on  the  one  hand  and  the  riches  of  the  company 


148  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

on  the  other.  No,  no;  the  most  we  could  get  for 
them  would  be  liberal  settlements.  We  mustn't 
bankrupt  the  road.  There  are  more  widows  own 
ing  stock  in  it  than  there  are  widows  caused  by  this 
wreck." 

"  Well,"  said  Luke,  "  I'm  afraid  you  don't  con 
vince  me,  Judge." 

"Not  if  I  could  promise  all  this?" 

"  No.  You  see,  there  was  a  smaller  wreck  some 
months  ago,  and  the  additional  track-walkers  and 
inspectors  were  promised  the  public  then." 

Undisturbed,  the  Judge  repeated  all  his  argu 
ments.  "  I  really  think  you  must  see  this  as  I  do," 

he  concluded.  "  And  all  we  want  is  the  letters . 

By  the  way,  Mr.  Huber,  I  congratulate  you  on  get 
ting  hold  of  them.  That  was  a  clever  piece  of  work. 
How  did  you  manage  it?" 

Luke  grinned. 

"  I  found  them  growing  on  an  apple  tree  in  Madi 
son  Square,"  he  said. 

The  Judge  nodded  a  smiling  approval. 

"  At  any  rate,"  he  submitted,  "  you  will  not  mind 
telling  me  if  any  other  person  knows  of  their  exist 
ence?" 

"  No,  I  don't  mind.  Except  you  and  your  friends 
and  me  and  the  apple  tree,  there  is  only  one  other 
person  that  knows  as  yet,  and  he's  in  no  position  to 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  149 

mention  them."  Luke  rose  as  if  to  end  the  inter 
view.  "  I've  told  nobody  because  I  keep  my  bar 
gains,  Judge.  But  I  do  keep  my  bargains  to  the  let 
ter.  You  haven't  convinced  me,  and  you  can't.  I've 
given  your  clients " 

"  My  friends,"  Stein  suavely  corrected. 

"  Your  friends,  then;  I've  given  them  one  month. 
If  they  don't  do  as  I've  suggested " 

The  judge  raised  a  hand  gravely. 

"  I  think  you  mean  '  ordered,'  Mr.  Huber," 
said  he. 

"  Thank  you.  Yes,  of  course,  I  meant  *  ordered/ 
If  they  don't  begin  to  do  as  I've  ordered  by  one 
month  from  to-day,  and  do  it  in  a  way  that  con 
vinces  everybody  of  their  intention  to  finish  the  job — 
yes,  and  their  consciousness  of  guilt — I'll  make  those 
letters  public." 

The  Judge  remained  seated.  He  looked  at  Luke 
sadly,  and  his  voice  rang  true  as  he  said: 

"  I  wonder  if  you  have  fully  considered,  I  shall 
not  say  the  dangers,  but  the  difficulties  and  annoyances 
your  course  may  expose  you  to — may  very  well  ex 
pose  you  to?  " 

"  No,"  said  Luke  shortly.     "  I'm  too  busy." 

"  A  great  many  men  have  tried  what  you  are  try 
ing,"  the  Judge  went  on,  "  and  they  have  all  failed. 
I  tried  it  once  myself.  None  has  succeeded;  not 


150  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

one.  Some  of  them,  of  course,  entirely  through  their 
own  faults,  were  ruined  by  it,  Mr.  Huber." 

" 1  dare  say,"  said  Luke,  unmoved. 

"  And  you,"  warned  the  Judge,  "  have  the  success 
of  a  new  and  valuable  political  movement  in  your 
hands.  You  are  responsible  for  it  and  to  it.  This 
might  end  by  losing  you  the  nomination." 

"  I  can  stand  that." 

"  It  might  even  hurt  the  men  in  the  movement  that 
have  trusted  you." 

"  I  sha'n't  blame  myself  for  it,  if  it  does." 

"  And  if  it  did  not  do  these  things,  it  would  surely 
wreck  the  faction  at  the  polls — a  faction  that  you  be 
lieve  in  and  that,  if  successful,  could  do  such  a  wide 
public  good." 

Luke  was  standing  above  his  caller,  his  hands  deep 
in  his  pockets. 

"  Look  here,  Judge,"  he  drawled,  "  are  you  by  any 
chance  threatening  me?  " 

The  Judge  was  not  at  all  threatening  him.  "  I 
am  only  telling  you,"  he  frankly  explained,  "  what  a 
long  life  in  New  York  has  shown  me.  I  like  you, 
Mr.  Huber;  I  believe  you  could  make  a  great  success 
in  life  if  you  were  less  hot-headed;  but  I  believe 
your  hot-headedness  can  ruin  you  at  the  bar,  can  ruin 
you  socially  and  financially,  and  can  put  a  stop  to 
your  political  career  forever.  I  knew  one  man  that 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  151 

attempted  something  such  as  you  are  attempting  and 
never  had  another  client  afterward.  I  knew  another 
that  people  heard  a  nasty  story  about  and  shut  all 
their  doors  against.  I  knew  a  dozen  that  became 
political  corpses,  and  I  knew  more  that  went  bank 
rupt." 

Luke  smiled. 

"  And  some,"  he  suggested,  "  disappeared  alto 
gether,  I  dare  say?  " 

The  Judge  looked  him  full  in  the  eyes. 

"  I  have  heard  so,"  said  he.  Then  he  brightened 
somewhat.  "  But  you  will  not  defy  the  lightning," 
he  continued.  "  You  are  too  practical.  I  am  q-uite 
sure  you  must  see  how  very  right  I  am  and  how  very 
well  disposed  my  friends  are  toward  you,  Mr.  Huber. 
Think  what  they  could  do  for  you,  socially,  finan 
cially,  politically.  Think  what  they  could  do  for  you 
personally  and  for  this  reform  movement." 

Luke's  smile  broke  into  a  laugh. 

"  Help  the  reform  ?  "  he  exploded.  "  Oh,  Lord  I  " 
Then,  as  quickly,  the  laugh  ended.  "  In  plain  terms," 
he  said,  "what  have  you  been  telling  me?"  His 
languor  had  disappeared,  and  a  sharp  rage  succeeded 
it.  His  words  cracked  like  a  whip.  "  You've  been 
telling  me  that  if  I  handed  the  safety  of  the  M.  &  N. 
patrons  over  to  the  men  that  hire  you,  and  let  those 
men  go  free  on  the  strength  of  a  promise  already 


152  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

broken,  they  would  make  me  rich,  elect  me  District- 
Attorney  to  do  their  work  for  them,  advance  me  in 
their  own  social  set  and  maybe,  if  I  kept  on  doing  all 
they  asked,  turn  me  into  a  Judge  or  a  Governor  or  a 
millionaire !  And  you've  been  saying  if  I  don't  do  it, 
they'll  have  me  forced  out  of  politics,  out  of  the 
practice  of  the  law,  out  of  decent  people's  houses — 
and  maybe  knocked  over  the  head  or  shot  in  the  back 
at  a  dark  corner.  Well,  here's  my  answer:  I  don't 
believe  they  would  help  me,  I  don't  believe  they  can 
hurt  me,  and  I  don't  care  a  damn,  one  way  or  the 
other!" 

The  Judge  bowed.  He  rose.  He  knew  the  world 
too  well  to  give  way  to  anger :  he  never  lost  his  tem 
per;  he  only  sometimes  advisedly  loosed  it. 

"  Is  this,"  he  asked,  "  your  final  decision,  Mr. 
Huber?" 

"  Yes,"  raged  Luke;  "  and  you  may  bet  your  last 
cent  on  that.  It's  my  final  decision,  and  it's  a  plain 
4  No.'  If  these  fellows  don't  do  what  I've  ordered, 
I'll  show  them  up — the  whole  bunch  of  them.  I'll 
do  it — why,  I'd  do  it  if  they  were  the  seraphim  and 
cherubim,  and  all  the  Thrones,  Dominions,  Virtues, 
Powers,  Principalities,  and  Archangels  rolled  into 
one !  " 


CHAPTER  VIII 

§  i.  Ex- Judge  Marcus  Stein  had  mastered,  in  com 
mon  with  most  truly  dignified  men,  the  art  of  acting 
quickly  without  hurrying.  Upon  leaving  Luke's 
apartments,  he  exercised  this  art. 

His  motor-car  was  waiting  for  him  at  the  door. 
He  climbed  into  it  with  a  judicial  deliberation  and 
gave  his  order  to  the  chauffeur.  The  car  started 
noiselessly.  By  proceeding  with  an  even  speed  that 
avoided  blind  dashes  into  the  back-waters  of  the 
traffic-stream,  it  made  better  time  than  its  more  im 
petuous  peers  and,  without  jolt  or  pause,  bore  its 
occupant  quickly  to  the  building  in  which  the  firm 
of  Stein,  Falconridge,  Falconridge  &  Perry  had  their 
offices. 

As  Judge  Stein  passed  through  the  outer  room  of 
the  suite,  he  spoke  to  the  girl  who  was  seated  at 
the  firm's  telephone  switchboard: 

"  Good-afternoon,  Miss  Weston." 

The  girl's  neurasthenic  face  lighted  with  pleasure : 
Marcus  Stein  was  liked  and  respected  by  his  office- 
force. 

"  Good-afternoon,  Judge  Stein,"  she  said. 
153 


154  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  I  think,"  said  the  Judge,  "  that  you  might  see  if 
you  can  get  Mr.  Hallett  on  his  private  wire,  and 
connect  him  with  my  telephone.  Will  you,  please?  " 

Miss  Weston  always  felt  that  the  Judge  conferred 
a  favor  when  he  asked  one.  Consequently,  she  made 
a  practice  of  giving  his  calls  precedence  over  those 
of  anybody  else  connected  with  the  firm. 

"  Right  away,"  she  said.  "  And  if  he's  left  his 
office,  shall  I  try  his  house  or  his  club?  " 

"  Both,  please,  Miss  Weston.  But  I  have  an  idea 
that  he  will  be  at  his  office." 

The  Judge  passed  on  to  his  own  handsome  room 
overlooking  the  turmoil  of  lower  Broadway.  He  had 
scarcely  reached  his  desk,  and  was  just  bending  to 
smell  of  the  two  Abel  Chatney  roses  that  stood  in  a 
vase  there,  when  the  soft  bell  of  his  telephone  tinkled. 

"  Stein?  "  asked  Hallett's  voice  through  the  black 
receiver  that  the  Judge  placed  to  his  ear. 

uYes.     This  is  Mr.  Hallett?" 

"  Yes." 

"  I  was  about  to  telephone  you,  and  I  have  just 
been  to  see  our  young  friend." 

"  Well— well?" 

"  It  is  no  use,  Mr.  Hallett." 

Hallett's  voice  was  incredulous :  "  The  fool  won't 
give  up?  " 

"  Not  yet." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  1155 

"  How  much  does  he  want?  " 

"  Nothing." 

"  Well,  but  didn't  you  throw  the  fear  of  God  into 
him?" 

"  We  can't  purchase  and  we  can't  coerce — at  least 
not  by  mere  threats." 

"  Then,  we've  got  to  frighten  him  by  something 
else,  Stein.  How'd  he  get  those  things  that  he's 
got?" 

"  He  wouldn't  say.  I  scarcely  expected  that  he 
would." 

"  Did  you  put  on  the  political  screws?  " 

"  I  put  on  all,  as  far  as  was  wise.  He  is  a  clever 
young  man,  and  he  knows  we  can't  hurt  him  so  long 
as  he  has  certain  things  in  his  possession." 

The  situation  apparently  passed  Hallett's  compre 
hension:  it  was  outside  of  his  experience. 

"  But  what  does  he  want?  He  must  want  some 
thing." 

"  I'm  afraid  not,"  the  Judge  sighed. 

"  Hell !     Of  course,  he  must.     Everybody  does." 

"  If  he  does,  I  couldn't  find  it  out." 

"Well,  then,"  asked  Hallett,  "what's  he  goin' 
to  do?" 

"  Nothing — for  a  month." 

"  You  don't  think  he'll  keep  his  word?  " 

"  I'm  sure  of  it." 


156  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"Wait  a  minute,"  said  Hallett 

The  Judge  waited  fifteen  minutes.  At  the  end 
of  that  time,  Hallett's  voice,  regretful,  but  firm, 
sounded  again  in  the  telephone: 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  we've  got  to  get  those  things 
he's  got.  We're  all  agreed  on  that.  Understand?  " 

"Yes?" 

u  Yes — and  it's  up  to  you,  Judge." 

"  Have  you  any  course  to  suggest?  " 

"  No,  we  haven't,  and  we  don't  want  to  know  any 
thing  about  courses.  That's  your  job." 

As  if  Hallett  were  in  the  room,  Stein  bowed  his 
white  head  to  him. 

"  Very  well,"  he  said,  and  hung  up  the  receiver. 

He  bent  to  the  pink  roses  again,  and  again  inhaled 
their  cultivated  fragrance.  His  face  was  not  per 
plexed,  but  it  was  sad. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  he  seemed  to  be  saying.  "  A  nice 
young  man.  I  am  very  sorry,  indeed." 

He  returned  the  telephone-receiver  to  his  ear. 

"Miss  Weston?" 

"Yes,  Judge  Stein?" 

"  Thank  you  for  getting  that  call  so  promptly. 
Now,  will  you  please  get  me  Mr.  Titus?" 

"  Mr.  William  Titus,  or  Titus  &  Titherington, 
the  mercantile  agency?  " 

"  Mr.  Alexander  Titus,  of  Titus  &  Titherington: 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  157 

the  one  that  I  was  speaking  to  before  I  went  out 
to  luncheon." 

"  Yes,   Judge   Stein.     Just   a   minute." 

There  was  no  long  wait  before  Titus,  who  owed 
half  of  his  business  as  a  financial-agent  to  Stein  and 
Stein's  chief  employer,  was  in  conversation  with  the 
Judge. 

"  Have  you  secured  that  report  yet?  "  asked  Stein. 

"Which  one,  Judge?" 

"  The  one  I  asked  you  for  at  lunch-time." 

"  It's  being  typed  now.  I'll  send  it  over  as  soon 
as  it's  finished." 

"  I  wish  you  would.  Meantime,  get  the  chief 
points  from  the  man  that  looked  into  the  matter  and 
'phone  them  to  me." 

"  All  right,  Judge." 

"  Call  me  up.  I  have  somebody  to  talk  to  while 
I'm  waiting." 

The  Judge  rang  off  and  then  another  time  spoke 
to  Miss  Weston. 

"  Is  Mr.  Irwin  in  his  office?  " 

Miss  Weston  said  he  was. 

"  Then,  please  ask  him  to  step  in  to  see  me  for: 
a  moment." 

Mr.  Irwin  was  a  member  of  the  Judge's  firm  whose 
name  did  not  appear  upon  its  letter-heads,  although 
he  had  been  attached  to  it  for  more  years  than  Mr. 


158  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Perry  or  even  the  younger  Mr.  Falconridge.  He 
was  a  little  man  with  a  gray  Vandyck  beard,  pink 
cheeks,  and  twinkling  blue  eyes. 

In  the  fewest  possible  words,  Stein  gave  him  a 
description  of  the  letters  that  were  in  Luke  Huber's 
possession.  He  did  not  say  who  wanted  these  letters, 
or  why  they  were  wanted,  but  he  left  no  doubt  about 
the  urgency  of  the  commission  he  was  delivering. 

"  It  is  rather  a  difficult  assignment,"  he  concluded, 
"  but  it  must  be  done.  There  are  great  interests  at 
stake." 

"  I  think  I  can  manage  it,"  said  Irwin  cheer 
fully. 

"  I  am  afraid  you  will  have  to  manage  it,"  said 
the  Judge. 

"  I'll  simply  tell  my  friend " 

The  Judge  raised  his  hand  and  smiled. 

"  No  details,  please,"  said  he. 

'  Very  well,"  Irwin,  still  cheerful,  agreed. 

"  All  that  I  need  add,"  said  the  Judge,  "  is  this: 
we  must  take  only  one  step  at  a  time.  If  we  can  suc 
ceed  by  persuasion,  there  is  no  need  to  use  other 
measures.  I  do  not  want  to  use  other  measures  unless 
he  forces  us  to  use  them.  Remember  that.  The  first 
thing  to  do  is  to  convince  him  that  we  are  too  strong 
for  him.  For  instance,  he  has  this  reform  nomina 
tion  for  the  district-attorneyship.  If  he  could  be 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  159 

made  to  see  that  we  could  take  that  nomination  away 
from  him,  he  might  listen  to  reason." 

"  I  see.'5 

"  You  will  report  results  to  me.  Not  methods, 
Irwin:  only  the  results,  but  please  report  the  results 
step  by  step.  And  understand  that  whoever  under 
takes  this  matter  must  not  know  too  much  to  be  dan 
gerous,  but  must  know  enough  to  make  no  error." 

"  How  soon  do  you  want  the  letters,  Judge?  " 

"  As  soon  as  I  can  get  them." 

"And  the  outside  limit?" 

"  The  first  step  must  be  immediate.  We  must  not 
run  so  fast  that  we  stumble;  but  for  the  completion 
it  will  be  impossible  to  wait  long.  Say  twenty-eight 
days  from  date." 

"  Right,"  said  Irwin,  and  walked  briskly  from  the 
room. 

Irwin  had  a  manner  of  telephoning  that  was  more 
hurried  than  the  Judge's,  and  Miss  Weston  treated 
him  with  greater  deliberation.  However,  he  had 
soon  called  up  the  office  of  Anson  Quirk  and  learned 
that  Quirk  was  there. 

"  Then,  stay  there  for  twenty  minutes,  will  you?  " 
asked  Irwin.  u  I'm  coming  right  around  to  see  you." 

Anson  Quirk  was  a  lawyer  who  had  a  small  office 
and  a  large  reputation  on  the  East  Side.  His  round, 
smiling  face  shone  in  every  important  case  where 


160  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

was  endangered  the  liberty  or  life  of  minor  politicians 
or  major  thugs;  the  number  of  acquittals  to  his  credit 
was  surpassed  only  by  the  number  of  clients  whom  he 
had  saved  from  ever  appearing  in  court.  He  called 
every  patrolman,  magistrate,  and  tipstaff  in  the  City 
and  County  of  New  York  by  his  first  name.  He  was 
successful  before  a  judge,  but  he  was  magnificent  be 
fore  a  magistrate,  and  with  a  police-officer  he  was  a 
worker  of  miracles.  In  his  own  world,  Quirk,  whom 
Stein  would  have  refused  to  shake  hands  with, 
was  what  Stein  was  upon  a  somewhat  higher 
plane. 

He  talked  with  the  bright-eyed  Irwin  for  less  than 
half  an  hour.  Then  he  showed  his  visitor  from  his 
dusty  office  full  of  law-books  that  were  never  con 
sulted. 

"Easy?"  he  chuckled  as  he  bowed  Irwin  out. 
"  It's  a  hundred-to-one  shot.  I'll  tell  you  what  I'll 
do:  I'll " 

"  No,  you  won't  tell  me,"  laughed  Irwin.  "  The 
less  I  know,  the  better  for  me.  All  I  want  to  be  sure 
of  is  that  I  can  count  on  you." 

"  Sure,  you  can." 

"  And  don't  do  everything  at  once." 

"  Not  me.     The  frame-up  comes  first." 

"  Let  me  know  as  soon  as  it's  tried.  Then  we'll 
talk  about  the  next  move — if  one's  needed." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  161 

"  I  understand.  And  whatever's  needed,  I'll  de 
liver  the  goods  inside  of  three  weeks." 

Irwin  said  he  hoped  nothing  more  would  be  needed 
and  that  a  few  days  would  suffice,  and  Quirk,  screw 
ing  a  derby-hat  on  one  side  of  his  head,  walked 
around  the  corner  to  the  police-station  to  see  his 
friend,  the  red-faced,  genial  Hugh  Donovan,  lieu 
tenant  of  police. 

§  2.  Ex- Judge  Stein,  in  the  handsome  room  over 
looking  Broadway,  had  been  having  another  tele 
phone-conversation  with  the  head  of  the  Titus  & 
Titherington  Mercantile  Agency  while  Mr.  Irwin 
was  consulting  with  Mr.  Quirk. 

"  That  man  has  saved  a  bit,"  Alexander  Titus  was 
reporting;  "but  outside  of  his  salary  he  has  really 
only  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  it's  all  invested 
in  the  R.  H.  Forbes  &  Son  clothing  firm  over  in 
Brooklyn." 

The  Judge  made  a  note  of  this  on  a  desk-pad. 

"  I  see,"  he  said.  "  Who  is  the  head  of  that  firm, 
now?" 

"Wallace  K.  Forbes;  I  think  he's  a  grandson  of 
old  R.  H." 

The  Judge  made  another  note. 

"  How  do  they  stand?  Oddly  enough,  I  have  a 
client  interested  in  their  affairs,  too." 


1 62  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  The  Forbes  people?  Pretty  well.  I  had  to  get 
a  report  on  them  last  week." 

"Have  they  any  heavy  loans?" 

"Only  one  that  might  hurt  them:  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars  at  call  with  the  East 
County  National." 

The  Judge's  pencil  was  still  busy. 

"  I  want  to  be  quite  clear  about  this,"  he  said — 
"  quite  clear:  my  client  in  this  Forbes  matter  is  con 
sidering  an  investment.  Am  I  to  understand  that  if 
the  East  County  National  should  call  this  loan,  if 
it  could  not  be  renewed  elsewhere,  the  firm  would 
become  insolvent?" 

"  Oh,  there's  no  doubt  about  that.  But  then, 
there's  no  doubt  about  its  not  being  called,  either. 
The  company's  quite  sound,  Judge." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Stein.  "  You  will  have  that 
other  full  report  sent  over?  " 

"  It's  on  its  way  now." 

"  Thank  you  again.  You  had  better  follow  it  with 
a  copy  of  the  Forbes  report.  If  that  bears  out  all  you 
say,  I  shall  instruct  my  client  to  go  ahead." 

"  He'll  be  safe  if  he  does,  Judge." 

"  Very  well.     Good-afternoon,"  said  Stein. 

He  called  Miss  Weston  again. 

"  Miss  Weston,"  he  said,  "  please  get  me  City 
Chamberlain  Kilgour,  and,  while  I  am  speaking  to 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  163] 

him,  call  up  the  East  County  National  and  ask 
where  you  can  find  president  Osserman.  He  will 
have  left  the  bank,  but  I  should  like  to  reach  him 
before  I  go  home  to-day." 

Miss  Weston  obeyed  with  her  usual  readiness  to 
serve  this  one  of  her  employers. 

§  3.  Police  Lieutenant  Donovan  had  not  listened 
to  half  a  dozen  of  Quirk's  words  before  he  rose 
quickly  and  closed  the  door  of  his  private  room. 
His  was  one  of  those  voices  that  cannot  whisper,  but 
it  descended  now  to  a  hoarse  muttering. 

"How  much  is  there  in  this  for  me?"  he  de 
manded. 

"  NothinV  grinned  Quirk. 

Donovan's  broad  palm  banged  the  table  at  which 
he  sat. 

"  Then  good-night,"  said  he. 

Quirk  was  undisturbed. 

"  Could  you  do  the  trick?"  he  inquired. 

"  You  mean  if  it  was  worth  my  while?" 

"I  mean  what  I  say:  could  you  do  it?" 

"Could  I  do  it?  Of  course,  I  could.  It'd  be 
like  takin'  pennies  from  a  blind  man." 

'*  Then,"  said  Quirk,  rattling  some  coins  in  a 
pocket  beneath  his  round  abdomen,  "  I  guess  you'd 
better  get  busy." 


1 64  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Donovan's  eyes  narrowed. 

"  What's  your  game,  Quirk?"  he  asked. 

"  It's  not  my  game,  Hughie,"  smiled  the  lawyer. 

"  Well,  you're  not  in  it  for  your  health,  I  know 
that  damn  well.  If  it  ain't  your  game,  whose  is 
it?" 

"  I  don't  know  for  sure,"  said  Quirk. 

"  Oh,  come  on.  You  know  me:  you've  got  to 
cough  up  if  you  want  me  to  help." 

Quirk  did  know  the  police-lieutenant.  He  had  ex 
pected  all  along  to  be  forced  into  an  admission;  but 
he  was  aware  that  by  letting  Donovan  suspect  reluc 
tance  he  could  the  more  speedily  gain  his  point. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  it  didn't  come  to  me  straight, 
but  I'll  tell  you  how  it  did." 

He  embarked  upon  a  narrative  brief  and  abound 
ing  in  gaps  that  Donovan's  imagination  was  not,  how 
ever,  slow  to  fill  as  Quirk  intended  it  should. 

The  officer  nodded  comprehendingly.  "  Then 
who's  at  the  back  of  it?  "  he  asked. 

Quirk  walked  quietly  to  the  door.  He  opened  it 
suddenly:  nobody  had  been  listening  at  the  keyhole; 
so  he  turned  to  Donovan  and  said  a  certain  name. 

The  police-lieutenant's  red  face  grew  redder.  He 
opened  and  shut  his  mouth  twice  before  he 
spoke. 

"Again?"  he  muttered. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  165 

Quirk  nodded. 

"  That's  all  I  know  about  it,"  he  said. 

"  Well,  why  in  hell  didn't  you  tell  me  this  right 
off  at  first?  "  asked  the  querulous  Donovan. 

"  Because  I  didn't  think  I'd  have  to,"  pleaded 
Quirk. 

"  Have  to?  Looks  to  me  like  the  have-to  business 
all  came  on  to  me !  How  long've  I  got  to  put  this 
across?  " 

Quirk  appeared  to  consider. 

"  You'd  have  to  begin  with  the  first  thing  right 
away,"  he  said,  "  and  let  me  know  about  that.  If  it 
didn't  work,  I'd  get  my  party  to  give  me  fuller  in 
structions,  and  then  I  guess  you'd  have  eighteen 
days." 

"  I'm  gettin'  sick  of  the  whole  game,"  said  Dono 
van. 

"  So  am  I,"  said  the  lawyer  blithely.  "  But  what 
are  we  going  to  do  about  it?  We've  got  to  make  a 
living,  don't  we?  " 

"  I  ain't  so  sure  of  that." 

"  Anyhow,  we've  got  to  buy  shoes  for  our  kids, 
Hughie." 

"  Oh,  come  on,"  muttered  Donovan,  "  let's  talk 
business." 

They  talked  business  until  Quirk  remembered  an 
other  appointment  and  had  to  leave.  When  the  law- 


166  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

yer  had  gone,  Donovan  put  his  head  into  the  large 
room  next  his  own  and  called  to  a  sleepy  officer 
seated  at  a  desk. 

"  Anderson,"  he  asked,  "  where's  Patrolman 
Guth?" 

Anderson  yawned. 

"  Just  come  in,  Lieutenant,"  he  vouchsafed: 
"  him  and  Mitchell.  He's  in  the  locker-room." 

"  Send  him  in  here." 

Donovan  closed  the  door  and  sat  at  his  table, 
frowning  at  its  surface,  until  Guth  entered. 

"  Hello,  Bill,"  said  the  Lieutenant. 

Guth  was  as  big  as  the  Lieutenant  and  more  power 
ful.  He  would  have  been  handsome,  but  his  mouth 
had  been  torn  in  some  obscure  street-fight,  and  the 
scar  from  this  wound  carried  the  line  of  his  lips  to 
the  left  corner  of  his  jaw-bone. 

"  How 're  you,  Lieutenant?"  he  replied. 

Donovan  resumed  his  study  of  the  table. 

44  What's  Reddy  Rawn  doin'  these  days?"  he 
presently  continued. 

Guth  shifted  his  weight  from  one  leg  to  the  other. 
As  much  as  that  scar  would  permit,  he  smiled,  the 
right  corner  of  his  mouth  shooting  upward  and  the 
left  turning  down. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  you  know  how  it  is.  I  warned 
him  he'd  got  to  keep  in  the  quiet  ever  since  that  night 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  167 

him  and  the  Kid  shot-up  Crab  Rotello  for  tryin'  to 
steal  Reddy's  girl.'* 

"RotelloV  still  in  Bellevue,  ain't  he?" 

"  Won't  be  out  for  near  a  month  yet." 

"He  hasn't  squealed?" 

"  Naw.  You  know  these  here  guys :  wouldn't  tell 
if  they  was  dyin' — rather  leave  it  to  their  own  gang 
to  square  things.  Crab'll  wait  till  he  gets  well,  an' 
then  he'll  fix  Reddy's  feet  for  himself." 

"  Still,  you  told  Reddy  what  I  said  you  should?  " 

"  Tol'  him  we  was  on." 

"  Find  him  to-night." 

"All  right,  Lieutenant." 

"Tell  him  Rotello's  squealed:  he'll  believe  it  be 
cause  he  hates  him.  Tell  him  the  Dago's  goin'  to 
croak  an's  give  me  an  ante-mortem  statement — 
see?" 

The  patrolman  stolidly  bowed  assent. 

"  Tell  him  the  only  way  for  him  to  square  me's  to 
do  me  a  good  turn,"  continued  Donovan. 

Guth  nodded  again. 

"  Same's  we  worked  on  the  Crab  himself  ten  or 
twelve  weeks  ago,"  he  said.  "  I  got  you." 

"  That's  it.  Remember,  I  don't  know  much,  an' 
you  know  a  lot  less,  an'  this  guy's  got  to  know  less 
than  you  do.  He's  got  to  pull  it  off  inside  of  two 
weeks.  Now,  sit  down  here,  an'  I'll  tell  you  what 


1 68  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

he's  got  to  do.     There  maybe'll  be  more  later,  but 
this  is  the  start." 

§  4.  The  last  talk  that  Judge  Stein  had  that  day 
was  one  with  a  brisk,  bald-headed  man,  whose  close- 
cropped  mustache  only  accentuated  the  heavy  mouth 
below  it.  This  man  called  in  person  at  the  offices 
of  Stein,  Falconridge,  Falconridge  &  Perry;  he 
seemed  to  have  come  in  a  hurry,  and  he  handed  Miss 
Weston  a  card  bearing  the  legend: 


B.  FRANK  OSSERMAN 

PRESIDENT 
EAST  COUNTY  NATIONAL    BANK 


With  him  the  Judge  began  by  being  as  deliberate 
as  he  had  been  with  Luke  Huber.  He  mentioned 
the  names  of  the  three  men  upon  whom  Huber  had 
that  morning  paid  so  unusual  a  visit  to  Wall  Street; 
but  this  time  Stein  frankly  declared  that  these  three 
men  empowered  him  to  speak. 

At  the  mention  of  their  names,  Osserman's  fingers 
played  with  a  thin  gold  watch-chain  that  ran  taut 
through  a  buttonhole  of  his  waistcoat,  from  one 
pocket  to  another. 

"  I  dare  say  that  you  will  remember,"  pursued 
the  Judge,  "  that  I  have  acted  with  you  for  these 
gentlemen  on  one  or  two  previous  occasions." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  169 

Osserman  cleared  his  throat.  "  I  hope  there  is  no 
trouble,"  he  said. 

"  No.  Oh,  no ;  there  need  be  no  trouble,"  said  the 
Judge.  Then  he  sat  and  watched  Osserman  move 
uneasily  in  his  chair. 

The  bank-president  by  saying  nothing  tried  to 
force  Stein  to  explain;  Stein,  by  the  same  means,  tried 
to  force  Osserman  to  make  a  confession  of  weak 
ness.  At  last  Stein  won. 

"  Of  course,"  said  Osserman,  "  I  know  the  favors 
they've  done  us." 

"  Exactly,"  said  the  Judge;  but  he  said  only  that. 

"  And  so,"  continued  Osserman,  as  one  who  can 
not  turn  back,  "  our  bank  will  be  glad  to  do  anything 
we  can  for  them."  He  paused  and  looked  at  Stein; 
but  Stein  only  looked  pityingly  at  him.  "  Indeed," 
the  banker  ruefully  resumed,  "  their  connection  with 
our  investments  and  securities  is  such  that  we  would 
have  to." 

"  Exactly,"  repeated  the  Judge,  bending  his  face 
toward  the  pink  roses  at  his  elbow.  But  he  was  a 
little  sorry  for  Osserman,  and  so  he  added:  "  Not 
that  the  East  County  is  in  a  position  very  different, 
in  that  respect,  from  most  of  the  other  banks." 

Osserman  took  a  deep  breath. 

"Well,"  he  said,  "  what  is  it?" 

"  You  are  carrying,"  said  the  Judge,  "  a  call-loan 


1 7o  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

at  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  to  R.  H.  Forbes 
&  Son." 

The  banker  showed  his  relief.  It  was  clear  that 
he  had  expected  something  more  important. 

"  Are  we?  "  he  asked.    "  I  dare  say  we  are." 

"  Mr.  Osserman,"  said  the  Judge,  "  the  finances 
of  the  R.  H.  Forbes  company  are  not  long  going 
to  be  what  they  should  be.  In  the  interest  of  your 
depositors,  I  should  advise  you  to  stand  ready  to 
call  that  loan  when  I  give  you  the  word." 

The  banker  looked  at  the  Judge  and  knew  that, 
before  this  loan  would  be  called,  the  Judge's  clients 
would  see  to  it  that  no  other  bank  would  take  it 
up.  That,  however,  was  no  affair  of  Osserman's :  he 
considered  that  he  was  escaping  by  means  of  a  small 
service. 

"  If  there's  any  danger  of  the  Forbes  people  fail 
ing,"  he  said,  "  it  would  be  only  good  business  to  do 
as  you  say." 

"  Yes,"  the  Judge  assented.  "  The  fact  of  the 
matter  is  this,  Mr.  Osserman:  that  young  man  named 
Huber,  who  has  been  backing  Leighton,  is  leaving 
Leighton  and  will  be  the  candidate  for  the  reform 
people  to  succeed  him." 

"  I  saw  something  about  it  in  the  afternoon 
papers." 

"  Yes.    Now,  my  clients  have  no  objection  to  those 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  171 

reformers;  we  see  that  they  may  do  a  great  deal  of 
good,  if  they  put  a  temperate  man  at  the  head  of 
their  ticket.  But  we  happen  to  know  that  this  Huber 
is  a  young,  hot-headed  demagogue.  He  is  the  kind 
of  man  that  attracts  the  crowd.  He  might  be  elected. 
If  he  was  not,  he  would  hurt  credit  by  his  wild 
speeches;  if  he  was,  he  would  undoubtedly  upset 
it  by  trying  to  put  his  impossible  promises  into  ac 
tion.  The  safest  thing  for  Business  is  to  take  the 
nomination  away  from  him  before  he  gets  started: 
then  nobody  is  hurt.  What  money  he  has  (it  is  not 
much)  is  invested  in  this  Forbes  concern.  My  advice 
to  you  is  to  see  Mr.  Forbes  to-morrow;  make  him 
appreciate  how  your  bank  feels  about  the  unsettling 
nature  of  this  candidacy,  and  tell  him  that  you  will 
have  to  call  his  loan  if  the  candidacy  continues." 

§  5.  That  was  a  busy  night  for  the  president  and 
cashier  of  more  than  one  bank  in  New  York  City,  and 
for  certain  gentlemen  whose  business  it  is  to  negotiate 
for  loans  from  banks  in  other  cities.  Judge  Stein's 
telephonic  talk  with  City  Chamberlain  Kilgour  was 
as  effective  as  the  conversation  with  president  Osser- 
man.  It  is  in  the  chamberlain's  official  province  to 
deposit  municipal  funds  with  almost  whatsoever 
institution  he  chooses,  and  to  withdraw  such  funds  as 
he  may  elect:  the  thin,  energetic  figure  of  Kilgour, 


172  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

long  familiar  to  the  tents  of  Tammany,  was  this  even 
ing  hurrying  from  private  houses  to  Madison  Square 
Clubs  and  from  clubs  to  Broadway  cafes.  The  swift, 
quiet  motor-car  of  ex-Judge  Stein  was  busy,  too. 

§  6.  Somebody  else  was  busy :  Patrolman  Guth. 
Patrolman  Guth,  in  citizen's  garb,  was  standing  al 
most  invisible  in  the  shadowy  alley  behind  a  saloon 
near  Forty-third  Street  and  Third  Avenue,  and  was 
muttering  to  the  darkness.  And  at  last  the  darkness 
answered. 

"  I'm  on/'  said  the  darkness. 


CHAPTER  IX 

§  i.  "No,  sir;  she's  gone  out,"  said  the  servant 
that  answered  Luke's  ring  at  the  door  of  the  Forbes 
house  and  his  inquiry  for  Betty  on  the  afternoon  of 
his  interview  with  Judge  Stein. 

"To  town?"  asked  Luke. 

"  Yes,  sir;  I  think  so.  I  think  she's  gone  over  to 
Mr.  Nicholson's  Hester  Street  mission." 

Luke  had  frequently  met  the  Rev.  Pinkney  Nichol 
son  ;  he  liked  him.  The  young  clergyman  was  a  friend 
of  both  Forbes  and  Forbes's  daughter.  The  latter 
often  helped  in  Nicholson's  slum-missionary  work; 
an  attendance  at  Nicholson's  church  of  St.  Atha- 
nasius  was  the  only  occupation  that  brought  Forbes 
and  Betty  even  slightly  into  touch  with  the  world 
of  the  Ruysdaels.  With  Betty,  Luke  often  went  to 
the  Sunday  morning  services.  Indeed,  he  had  re 
cently  become  a  consistent  member  of  the  congrega 
tion,  partly  because  Betty  liked  the  church  and  partly 
because  Luke  himself  admired  Nicholson's  simple  and 
forcible  eloquence  and  believed  enough  in  Nichol 
son's  philanthropy  to  forgive  a  ritualism  that  in  itself 
had  only  a  superficial  appeal  for  him. 

173 


174  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  She  didn't  say  when  she  would  be  back?  "  Luke 
inquired.  Until  this  moment  he  had  not  known  how 
badly  he  wanted  to  see  her. 

"  No,  sir.  By  dinner-time,  I  guess.  Would  you 
like  to  leave  any  message,  Mr.  Huber?" 

"  Only  that  if  she  isn't  going  out  this  evening, 
I'll  call." 

"  Very  well,  sir." 

Luke  had  hurried  to  the  Forbes  house  in  Brooklyn 
as  soon  as  Stein  left  him,  for  he  knew  that  Betty 
was  usually  at  home  from  three  o'clock  in  the  after 
noon  until  five;  but  the  Judge  had  consumed  some 
time;  there  was  a  block  in  the  subway  and  another 
block  on  the  surface-line  at  the  subway's  end:  Luke 
had  missed  Betty.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done  but 
to  return  to  town,  where  he  should  have  remained 
in  order  to  be  in  touch  with  the  new  friends  that 
were  announcing  him  as  their  certain  chance  for  the 
district-attorneyship. 

He  considered  himself  ready  for  the  fight.  He 
knew  that  Stein,  although  checked  in  the  engagement 
at  the  Thirty-ninth  Street  apartments,  would  not  be 
defeated  and  would  resume  the  offensive  from  some 
other  quarter  at  some  later  date;  but  Luke  looked  for 
no  serious  oppilation  by  these  secret  enemies  before 
the  end  of  the  month  that  he  had  given  them  in  which 
to  come  to  terms.  He  underestimated,  in  short,  both 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  175 

the  power  and  the  unencumbered  license  of  his  foes. 
He  would  not  realize  the  handicap  that  his  grant  of  a 
four  weeks'  armistice  placed  on  his  own  movements, 
he  would  not  believe  that  his  antagonists  might  vio 
late  the  truce,  and  he  refused  to  credit  them  with  the 
vast  influence  and  free  conscience  which  were  at  their 
command. 

The  open  war,  the  war  that  the  reformers  and  the 
public  saw,  was,  however,  waging.  The  Municipal 
Reform  League  had  taken  city  headquarters  in  an 
office-building  in  Broadway  below  Madison  Square 
weeks  ago,  before  they  began  their  search  for  a  candi 
date.  At  that  time  divisional  headquarters  were 
opened  in  every  ward  in  New  York,  and  the  remnants 
of  an  older  reform  organization,  left  from  a  defeat 
ten  years  old,  were  gathered  and  cemented  for  present 
use.  Nelson,  Venable,  and  Yeates  were  working  day 
and  night  with  their  lieutenants,  and  when  Luke  re 
turned  to  his  apartments,  the  loneliness  that  he  was 
beginning  to  feel  because  of  the  sudden  end  of  his 
duties  under  Leighton,  was  banished  by  the  news 
that  the  League  headquarters  had  been  telephoning 
madly  for  him. 

He  bought  a  newspaper  on  his  way  downtown  and 
discovered  what  was  one  of  the  things  that  his  asso 
ciates  wanted  to  see  him  about :  Leighton  had  issued 
a  statement  saying  that  he  had  forced  Luke's  resigna- 


176  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

tion  from  the  District-Attorney's  staff  because  of 
Luke's  inefficiency. 

"  You  must  nail  that  lie  immediately !  "  cried  Ven- 
able  as  soon  as  Luke  entered  the  offices  of  the  League. 
The  old  man  was  standing  at  a  desk  with  Yeates  and 
Nelson  beside  him. 

"Why  did  he  fire  you,  anyway?"  asked  Yeates. 
"  I  always  thought  Leighton  was  a  rather  decent 
kind  of  fellow." 

"  Jealousy,"  suggested  Nelson.  "  He  was  afraid 
of  him." 

Luke  sat  on  a  table  and  dangled  his  long  legs.  He 
did  not  like  the  necessity  that  Leighton  had  put  upon 
him. 

"  Of  course,  he  didn't  discharge  you  at  all,"  said 
Venable.  "  We  all  know  that.  But  we  have  called 
the  committee  for  the  day  after  to-morrow,  and  you 
must  make  the  public  see  the  matter  as  we  do." 

"  I'm  not  so  sure  that  he  didn't  fire  me,"  said 
Luke.  He  chose  to  be  blind  to  his  hearers'  astonish 
ment.  "  It  was  a  race  to  see  whether  he'd  chuck 
me  or  me  him,  and  I  think  it  ended  in  a  dead- 
heat." 

"  Oh,  come  off !  "  said  Yeates. 

Venable  stroked  his  white  hair. 

"  But  the  reason?  "  he  commanded.  "  You  must 
give  the  full  story  to  the  public.  We  stand  for  ab- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  177 

solute  honesty  in  politics,  and  we  can't  begin  with 
any  suppression  of  facts  in  public  office." 

"  Well,"  said  Luke,  "  I  think  I  gave  Leighton, 
in  a  general  way,  to  understand  I  believed  he  was 
willing  to  use  the  Money  Power  in  politics,  if  he 
could  get  it  to  use."  He  smiled  at  them.  "  Does 
sound  rather  vague,  doesn't  it?  " 

Nelson  puffed  out  his  cheeks.  "  Men  don't  break 
up  a  partnership  for  such  things,"  said  he. 

"  Leighton  and  I  did." 

"  Perhaps    you    did,     but    people    won't    think 


so." 


Venable  cut  in : 

"  We  don't  want  to  pry  into  your  private  affairs, 
and,  of  course,  we  don't  expect  you  to  violate  any 
personal  confidences  that  you  naturally  had  with  Mr. 
Leighton;  but  a  broad  statement  of  the  basic  facts 
has  to  go  to  the  papers  at  once.  The  charge  would 
n't  be  so  serious  if  it  was  specific  and  vulgar,  because 
then  you  would  have  no  trouble  in  disproving  it;  but 
Mr.  Leighton  is  a  thorough  politician;  he  knows  the 
value  of  vagueness,  and  he  gives  the  impression  that 
he  could  tell  a  great  deal  if  he  wasn't  so  much  of  a 
gentleman  as  to  want  to  spare  your  feelings." 

Luke  slowly  got  down  from  the  table. 

"  I  will  say  this  much,"  he  replied;  "  I  will  answer 
Leighton  in  his  own  language:  I  will  say  he  tried  to 


178  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

get  hold  of  some  documents  that  would  make  trouble 
for  a  group  of  unscrupulous  and  influential  men,  and 
he  wasn't  going  to  use  those  documents  in  court  or 
out  of  it  to  stop  those  men  in  a  wrong  they  were  do 
ing,  but  only  as  a  means  to  force  them  to  give  him 
their  political  support." 

Venable  reflected. 

"  I  think  it  would  suit  if  you  published  that,"  he 
said. 

"  Did  he  get  the  documents?  "  asked  Nelson. 

"  No,"  said  Luke,  "  he  didn't.  Now,  send  me  in 
a  stenographer,  and  I'll  dictate  a  statement  along 
those  lines." 

§  2.  The  headquarters  of  the  Municipal  Reform 
League  occupied  a  half  of  the  second  floor.  They 
were  accessible  by  either  the  stairs,  or  any  of  the  three 
elevators  that  all  day  long  shot  down  and  up  narrow 
shafts  from  the  roof  to  the  hall  opening  on  Broad 
way.  Entering  the  offices,  one  came  first  to  a  recep 
tion-room;  beyond  that,  one  passed  along  the  cleared 
side  of  a  railing  in  the  large  apartment,  behind  which 
sat  the  company  of  stenographers  and  typewriters, 
and  so  came  to  a  series  of  offices  with  ground-glass 
doors  and  windows  giving  upon  the  street.  It  was 
one  of  these  offices  which  was  permanently  assigned 
to  Luke. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  179 

Here,  pacing  the  floor  between  the  roll-top  desk 
at  one  side  and  the  small  safe  for  private  papers  on 
the  other,  Luke  dictated  his  public  letter.  He  tried  to 
word  it  in  such  a  way  that  its  facts  would  not  sound 
incredible  to  the  uninitiated  reader,  would  not  seem 
so  vague  as  to  excite  suspicion,  and  would  yet  convey 
to  both  Leighton  and  Stein  the  threat  of  complete 
publicity  to  be  fulfilled  if  the  writer  were  pushed  too 
far.  It  was  a  hard  task,  but  Luke,  after  several 
revisions,  was  satisfied  with  it. 

"  Yes,"  said  Venable,  "  I  think  that  will  do.  The 
reporters  are  waiting  outside;  I  sent  for  them.  I 
have  only  one  addition  to  suggest." 

"  What's  that?"  asked  Luke. 

"  You  deal  exclusively  with  your  resignation,  and 
yet  you  are  issuing  this  statement  from  the  League's 
headquarters.  Don't  you  think  you  had  better  say 
something  about  your  candidacy?" 

"  Hadn't  I  better  wait  till  I  get  it?  " 

"  You  will  have  it  as  soon  as  the  committee  meets. 
Everybody  knows  that.  I  don't  propose  that  you 
should  anticipate  all  the  good  points  of  your  letter 
of  acceptance,  but  merely  that  you  should  state  what 
you  will  stand  for.  You  could  say  that  your  name 
has  been  mentioned  for  the  nomination  and  that,  if 
nominated,  you  will  make  your  campaign  on  such  and 
such  issues." 


180  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  All  right."  Luke  shrugged  his  lean  shoulders. 
He  turned  to  the  waiting  stenographer.  "  Take 
this,1'  he  said: 

"  In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  say  that  my  recent  experience  in  the 
service  of  the  city  has  convinced  me  of  the  crying  need  of  a 
new  movement  for  civic  improvement :  a  non-partisan  movement 
in  which  the  one  object  shall  be  the  purification  of  municipal 
government  and  the  fearless  administration  of  the  law,  all  of  its 
supporters  working  together  not  for  any  man  or  party,  but  for 
the  good  of  New  York.  Such  a  movement  is  that  now  started 
by  the  conscientious  men  who  compose  the  Municipal  Reform 
League. 

"  My  name  has  been  mentioned  as  a  candidate  for  office  on  the 
ticket  of  this  league,  and  I  shall  feel  honored,  indeed,  if  I  re 
ceive  my  nomination  under  such  happy  auspices.  In  that  event, 
I  shall  go  before  the  people  with  a  frank  appeal  to  them  to  drive 
the  money-changers  out  of  the  Temple  of  Justice,  the  grafters 
out  of  the  police-force,  vice  and  crime  from  the  streets;  and, 
if  elected,  I  should  attempt  to  do  these  things,  as  the  will  of 
the  people  who  placed  me  in  power,  with  favor  to  no  persons,  or 
combination  of  persons,  in  Greater  New  York.  But  whether  I 
am  nominated  or  not,  I  shall  take  my  coat  off  and  roll  up  my 
sleeves  and  go  to  work  for  the  Municipal  Reform  League  as  for 
the  only  present  hope  of  this  city's  moral  regeneration." 

Luke  turned  to  Venable. 

"How's  that?"  he  inquired. 

Venable  agreed  that  it  ought  to  do. 

"I  think  it's  stodgy  enough,"  said  Luke. 

Venable  visibly  winced,  but  passed  the  comment  by. 

"  I  am  not  quite  sure,"  he  said,  "  about  that  ex 
pression  concerning  taking  off  your  coat  and  so  on. 
Our  first  appeal  has  to  be  made  to  the  cultivated 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  181 

voters,  you  see,  and  we  don't  want  to  sound  too — • 
well,  too  agricultural." 

Luke  smiled  his  weary  smile.  No  doubt  Venable 
was  right. 

"  Change  that,"  said  Luke  to  the  stenographer — 
"  change  it  to :  *  I  shall  put  on  my  armor  and  take 
up  my  broadsword  to  go  into  this  battle.'  " 

§3.  "Miss  Forbes  got  back?"  Luke  asked  that 
evening  when  he  again  rang  the  bell  at  the  Forbes 
house. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  servant,  "  she's  in  the  parlor. 
Mr.  Forbes  is  in  the  library.  Shall  I " 

"  I  think  I  can  make  out  with  only  Miss  Forbes 
— for  a  while,"  Luke  interrupted.  He  started  to 
walk  past  the  servant. 

"  Mr.  Nicholson  is  there,  too,"  the  careful  serv 
ant  warned  him.  "  He  stayed  to  dinner." 

"  Oh,  that's  good,"  said  Luke.  "  Well,  I'll  be 
glad  to  see  him."  But  his  tone  was  not  so  enthusi 
astic  as  it  had  been,  and  his  step  hesitated  half-way  to 
the  parlor  door. 

The  door  was  open.  Through  it  Betty  heard  him, 
and  through  it  she  now  hurried  into  the  hall  to  meet 
him,  her  hands  outstretched. 

"  How  splendid  of  you ! "  she  was  saying. 
"  We've  just  been  reading  your  letter  in  the  paper. 


1 82  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

The  papers  are  full  of  you,  and  you  don't  know  how 
proud  we  are  to  know  you,  and  how  proud  that  you 
come  here  to  see  us  at  such  a  busy  time." 

Her  cheeks  were  flushed,  her  brown  eyes  shone. 
Luke  noted  a  little  curl  that  escaped  from  the  mass 
of  golden  hair,  so  like  a  saint's  glory  to  her  head,  and 
seemed  to  caress  one  coral  ear. 

"  It's  all  nothing  but  my  good  luck,"  he  said  as 
he  took  both  her  hands  in  his  and  thought  not  half 
so  much  of  her  words  as  of  the  woman  that  uttered 
them.  "  But  I  didn't  expect  your  father's  approval." 

"  You  have  it,  anyway,"  she  assured  him.  "  Of 
course,  he's  a  Progressive,  and  he  thinks  you  would 
have  done  better  to  come  into  his  party;  but  he  does 
admire  your  courage,  and  so  does  Mr.  Nichol 


son." 


"  Does  he?"  said  Luke  dryly.  "  I  hope  not:  it 
might  go  to  my  head."  He  remembered  that  Nichol 
son  believed  in  celibacy  for  the  clergy,  and  he  was 
glad  of  it. 

The  young  priest  rose  as  his  hostess  and  her  new 
guest  came  into  the  Eighteen-Sixty  parlor.  He  was  a 
handsome  man  and  his  eyes  were  kindly,  yet  he  had 
the  face  of  an  ascetic. 

"  Miss  Forbes  is  right,"  he  said.  "  New  York 
needs  men  with  high  convictions  and  the  courage  of 
them." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  183 

"  So  does  the  Church,"  replied  Luke  heartily — 
"  and  she  is  getting  them  now." 

They  sat  down. 

"  The  Church,"  said  Nicholson,  "  has  always  had 
them.  What  she  lacked  was  the  co-operation  of  such 
men  in  the  practical  world.  If  all  of  our  millionaires 
were  like  some  few  of  them,  our  work  would  be 
easy;  but  now  we  scarcely  know  which  is  more 
dangerous:  the  evil  tyrant  or  the  evil  dema 
gogue." 

He  talked  for  some  time  in  this  strain,  not  to 
weariness,  but  with  the  completeness  of  the  zealot. 
Nicholson  regarded  wealth  as  a  sacred  trust,  a  gift 
from  God  given  to  the  great  intellects  of  the  world 
only  that  it  might  be  administered  for  the  benefit 
of  the  lesser  of  God's  creatures.  He  mentioned  no 
specific  instance,  but  he  saw  in  many  of  the  country's 
rich  men  souls  that  were  proving  worthy  of  their 
trust  and  others  that  were  using  their  money  selfishly 
and  even  cruelly.  For  the  former  he  had  the  highest 
regard,  for  the  latter  the  severest  condemnation;  the 
spiritual  and  physical  welfare  of  the  poor  he  con 
sidered  as  the  especial  care  of  the  more  fortunate, 
and  charity  was  not  only  the  right  of  penury:  it  was 
the  salvation  of  the  rich. 

Betty  listened  to  him  with  a  rapt  face;  Luke  hon 
ored  him,  but  sincerely  hoped  that  he  would  go. 


1 84  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Fearing  that  this  desire  was  becoming  too  patent, 
Luke  said: 

"  The  Manhattan  and  Niagara  people  don't  seem 
to  share  your  views." 

"  Ah,"  said  Nicholson,  "  there  you  touch  a  vexed 
problem,  because  there  you  have  to  do  with  a  corpo 
ration,  and  it  is  almost  a  fact  that  corporations  have 
no  souls." 

"  If  that  corporation  ever  had  any,  it  is  damned," 
said  Luke;  "  but  what  I'm  driving  at  is  that  the  in 
dividuals  composing  a  corporation  have  moral  re 
sponsibilities." 

The  clergyman  agreed,  but  in  corporations,  he 
thought,  responsibility  was  so  intricately  subdivided 
and  so  sinuously  delegated  that  no  one  man  had  much 
left  to  him  or  could  incur  much  guilt  for  his  indi 
vidual  errors.  In  connection  with  most  such  accidents 
as  a  railway  wreck,  there  was  really  an  ethical  basis 
for  the  legal  phrase  "  an  act  of  God." 

"  Not  in  the  North  Bridge  wreck,"  said  Luke. 
"  It's  been  shown  that  the  company  used  cheap  ma 
terial,  didn't  have  any  proper  system  for  checking 
its  work-reports  so  as  to  tell  whether  ordered  repairs 
were  made,  and  didn't  hire  competent  men.  The 
company  can't  get  out  of  this  mess  by  saying  its  ex 
perts  were  forced  on  it  by  the  unions:  it  hasn't  any 
legal  right  to  delegate  its  choice  of  experts  to  a  union. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  185; 

It's  a  common  carrier  and,  if  it  can't  do  its  work 
properly,  then  it  ought  to  stop  work." 

Nicholson  saw  this  much  as  Luke  did,  and  said  so 
at  a  good  deal  of  length.  It  was  some  time  before 
his  part  of  the  conversation  lagged  and  he  rose  to  go. 

§  4.  Luke  waited  only  until  he  heard  the  door 
close  upon  the  departing  clergyman.  Then  he  turned 
to  Betty  with  a  relieved  sigh. 

"  Phew!  "  he  said.     "  I'm  glad  that's  over." 

She  was  sitting  opposite  him  in  the  full  glare  of 
light  from  an  old-fashioned,  crystal-hung  chandelier. 
Betty  could  bear  strong  lights. 

uWhy?"  she  asked.  Her  brow  was  puckered, 
but  her  lips  smiled.  "  I  like  him.  He's  very  good, 
and  he's  doing  a  really  great  work.  I  like  him  ever 
so  much." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Luke.  "  Nicholson's  all  right. 
He  has  what  he  admires  in  other  men :  high  convic 
tions  and  the  courage  of  them.  Most  of  us  always 
admire  in  others  what  we  don't  have  ourselves;  but 
not  Nicholson.  He  is  doing  a  big  work,  too.  But 
I'm  glad  he's  gone,  just  the  same." 

"  Why?"  repeated  Betty. 

Luke  rose.  He  came  over  to  Betty  and  stood 
looking  down  at  her,  his  arms  folded  across  his  chest. 

"  Because,"  he  said,  "  I  wanted  to  talk  to  you." 


1 86  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  It  didn't  look  so.  It  looked  as  if  you  wanted  to 
talk  to  Mr.  Nicholson." 

"  I  wanted  to  talk  to  you  and  about  you." 

She  stopped  fencing.  She  gave  him  her  full,  frank 
gaze. 

"Well?"  she  asked. 

"  You  know  what  I  want  to  say,  Betty,"  he  an 
swered.  '  You've  seen  for  a  long  time  what  I  was 
coming  to.  I  held  off.  I  held  off  because  I  hadn't 
anything  to  offer  you.  Even  now  I  haven't  much. 
I  haven't  half  enough.  If  I  win  this  fight  I'm  in,  it 
won't  give  me  anything  that  would  make  me  deserve 
you.  I've  not  been  a  bit  better  than  I  should  be." 
His  voice  grew  tense.  "  When  I  come  down  to  brass 
tacks,  when  I — I  beg  your  pardon;  but  what  I  mean 
is  that  when  I  get  to  the  point  of  telling  you  I  love 
you,  I  see  how  far  I've  been  from  being  what  I  should 

be.  I Oh,  hang  it  all,  Betty !  "  He  put  out  his 

hands.  "  I  love  you.  I've  never  really  loved  any 
body  else  and  never  can.  If  I  win  this  confounded — 
blessed  fight,  will  you  marry  me?" 

She  got  slowly  to  her  feet:  it  seemed  to  Luke  min 
utes  before  she  had  stood  up  and  begun  her  answer. 
Then  she  took  both  his  hands. 

'  You  don't  have  to  win  the  fight  to  win  me, 
Luke,"  she  said. 

The  realization  swept  over  him.    He  took  her  in 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  187 

his  arms.  He  looked  in  her  upturned  face — the  eyes 
wide,  the  sweet,  fresh  cheeks  hot,  the  lips  parted, 
breathing  quickly — and  then  he  felt  the  blood  rush 
to  his  head,  felt  it  hammer  at  his  temples.  It  got 
into  his  eyes  and  blinded  him.  He  ground  his  lips 
upon  hers. 

The  dull  despair  of  his  last  months  under  Leighton 
commanded  a  reaction.  The  rushing  changes  of  the 
last  two  days  had  set  his  nerves  to  a  speed  that  would 
not  now  cease  in  whatever  physical  activities  he  en 
gaged  himself.  These  things  flung  him  along  a  new 
road;  they  raced  him  down  a  way  of  which  he  had 
known  but  little.  As  he  felt  the  warmth  of  her 
gracious  young  body  next  his,  he  was  hurled  with  such 
violence  down  a  course  so  unfamiliar  to  him  that  only 
the  thought  of  losing  his  race  by  running  it  too 
swiftly  could  serve  to  lessen  his  straining  speed.  Like 
a  quarter-mile  runner  stopping  himself  short  in  the 
last  hundred  yards  before  the  tape,  he  almost  fell  as 
he  forced  himself  to  release  her. 

"  Your  father,"  he  panted.  He  looked  away  from 
her:  "  I  must  see  him  now." 

Betty  did  not  understand.  She  was  only  exalted 
by  this  new  thing;  she  was  only  happy. 

"Now?"  she  whispered. 

"  Yes."  He  looked  back  at  her  and,  with  a  white 
face,  smiled.  "  He  has  a  right  to  know."  He  caught 


1 88  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

her  hand,  pressed  it  only  as  tightly  as  he  dared. 
"  I'll  go  to  him  in  the  library.     Wait  for  me." 

§  5.  Forbes  was  seated  at  a  round  table,  engaged 
in  his  regular  nightly  task  of  reading  the  editorial- 
page  of  the  Evening  Star,  nodding  his  head  when  he 
agreed  with  its  generalities  and  muttering  maledic 
tions  upon  it  when  it  specifically  ridiculed  the  Pro 
gressive  Party.  As  Luke  came  in,  Forbes  was  in 
the  midst  of  one  of  the  paper's  attacks  on  progres- 
sivism,  and  his  frown  seemed  to  drive  his  beaked  nose 
into  his  mustache. 

"  Oh,  Huber,"  he  said,  without  at  once  relaxing 
his  scowl;  "  I  didn't  know  you  were  here.  Come  in. 
Been  here  long?  " 

Luke  could  not  have  guessed  how  long  he  had  been 
in  the  house. 

"  Not  very,"  he  ventured. 

"  Sit  down,"  said  Forbes.  He  had  not  risen.  He 
indicated  an  easy-chair  near  his  own. 

"  Thanks,"  said  Luke;  but  he  did  not  sit 
down. 

Forbes  at  last  noticed  his  visitor's  nervousness. 

"  I  suppose  you've  had  a  hard  day,"  he  said. 
"  Pardon  me  for  not  congratulating  you  sooner  on 
your  success.  This  sheet  " — he  brandished  the  Even- 
Ing  Star — "  doesn't  want  anything  but  to  be  against 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  189 

everything.  It  upsets  me  every  evening.  But  you've 
done  a  big  thing.  I  think  you  should  have  come 
clear  over  to  our  side,  but  I  dare  say  you  will  do  that 
in  time.  Meanwhile,  I'm  sincerely  glad  for  your 
good  fortune.  You  deserve  it." 

"  You're  very  good,"  said  Luke.  His  eyes 
twinkled  a  little.  "  I  wonder  if  you  know  about  it — 
all." 

"  Only  what  this  mealy-mouthed  sheet  says.  It's 
absolutely  inexplicable  to  me,  Huber,  how  a  paper 
written  by  such  able  men  can  be  so  narrow-minded 
on  broad  subjects.  However,  I  think  they're  going 
to  support  your  party,  if  they  may  be  said  ever  to 
support  anything." 

"  I'm  afraid  they  are  rather  reticent  about  the  real 
news,"  said  Luke. 

"  They  never  tell  anything  that  weighs  against  their 
theories." 

"  They  haven't  had  a  chance  to  tell  this." 

Forbes  looked  puzzled. 

"What  do  you  mean?" 

"  It's  only  just  happened."  Luke  breathed  deeply. 
"  I'm  engaged  to  be  married,"  he  said.  He  spoke 
with  an  unusual  rapidity.  "  Engaged  to  be  married, 
and  I'd  like  it  to  come  off — the  wedding,  I  mean — > 
right  after  the  election." 

Forbes  scrambled  up.    He  wrung  Luke's  hand. 


190  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Well,  well,"  he  said,  "  you  are  to  be  congratu 
lated!" 

"  I  am  glad  you  think  so,"  said  Luke,  "  for  you 
know  the  girl  better  than  I  do." 

"The  girl?  I  know  her  better "  Forbes's 

voice  rose.  "  You  don't  mean You  don't  mean 

to  say " 

"  Yes,"  Luke  nodded.  "  It  is  luck,  isn't  it?  It's 
Betty." 

"  Bless  my  soul !  "  Forbes  brought  his  left  hand 
down  on  Luke's  right  shoulder.  "Bless  my  soul! 
My  little  girl!  Huber,  you — you  rather  knock  the 
wind  out  of  me." 

He  said  all  the  conventional  things;  his  manner 
showed  all  the  proper  surprise;  and  both  men  under 
stood  that  he  had  been  expecting  this  news  for  a 
long  time  and  wanting  it. 

"  Huber,"  he  said,  "  of  course  this  is  sudden,  and 
of  course  I'm  an  old  fool  not  to  have  got  over  con 
sidering  Betty  a  child — a  mere  baby — but,  now 
you're  here  with  the  announcement,  I'm  quite  cer 
tain  that,  out  of  all  the  men  who've  been  tagging 
after  her,  you're  the  one  that  I'd  want  for  a  son- 
in-law." 

Luke  again  mumbled  his  thanks. 

"You're  not  standing  still,"  pursued  Forbes: 
"  you're  going  ahead.  You  have  a  great  deal  to  you, 


THE    GIRL    NODDED    COMPREHENDINGLY 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  191 

and  Betty's  the  very  girl  to  make  you  make  the  best 
of  yourself  " — Forbes's  voice  abandoned  the  com 
monplace  note  and  fell  to  the  note  of  genuine  feel 
ing — "  then  there's  your  interest  in  the  Business. 
Huber,  I've  always  regretted  that  I  didn't  have  a 
son  to  leave  the  Business  to,  as  my  father  left  it  to 
me  and  his  father  to  him.  If  you'd  married  some 
body  else,  and  Betty  had  married  some  chap  that  had 
no  interest  in  it,  the  Business  might  have  gone  over 
to  you  eventually,  and  so  on  to  children  of  another 
stock  than  mine;  whereas,  now  " — he  looked  around 
Luke  to  the  doorway — "  Betty!  "  he  said. 

She  had  not  obeyed  Luke;  she  was  standing  at 
the  door. 

"  I  couldn't  wait,"  she  confessed;  but  she  said  it 
with  an  allegiance  that  was  now  all  for  Luke. 

"  Come  here,"  her  father  ordered. 

He  released  Luke's  hand  and  shoulder.  The  girl 
ran  to  him  and  put  her  arms  about  his  neck. 

"  Please  be  nice,  daddy,"  she  whispered.  "  Please 
be  nice." 

Forbes  managed  to  draw  a  handkerchief  and  blow 
his  nose. 

"  I  am  a  fool,"  he  said.  "  I— Betty,  you're  look 
ing  so  much  to-night  the  way  your  mother — By 
George,  I  am  a  fool !  I  think  I  must  be  getting  old, 
Huber." 


192  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

§  6.  In  the  room  at  the  end  of  the  hall  marked 
"  Family  Entrance "  to  a  saloon  in  Fifty-second 
Street,  near  Eighth  Avenue,  a  red-headed  man 
dressed  in  cheap  clothes  of  fashionable  cut,  was  lean 
ing  across  a  table  at  which  he  was  drinking  raw 
whisky  with  a  girl  who,  had  she  not  been  too  heavily 
painted,  would  have  had  a  face  like  that  popularly 
ascribed  to  Joan  of  Arc. 

"  I've  got  him  showed  to  me,"  the  man  was  say 
ing.  "  He  lives  at  the  Arapahoe  on  Thirty-ninth 
Street.  I'll  play  lighthouse.  All  you  gotta  do's  put 
on  them  glad  clothes  an'  get  him  into  Pearl's  Six* 
Av'nue  place.  He's  in  wrong,  anyhow.  Then  I'll 
tip  off  Charley  Guth,  an'  he'll  put  Donovan  wise  an' 
pinch  the  joint.  See?" 

The  girl  that  looked  like  Joan  of  Arc  nodded  com- 
prehendingly. 

"  But  the  clothes  has  got  to  be  real  swell,"  she 
said. 


CHAPTER  X 

§  i.  As  Luke  left  the  Forbes  house  that  night,  his 
step  kept  time  with  the  beat  of  his  pulses,  and  he 
walked  fast.  At  last  he  thought  that  he  saw  hap 
piness  within  reach. 

He  was  not  yet  happy;  he  was  quite  clear  about 
this.  One  half  of  him,  perhaps  the  nobler  half,  was 
engaged  in  a  political  battle  with  the  forces  of  cor 
ruption,  but  it  was  so  engaged  that  those  forces  af 
fected  it;  they  invaded  his  individuality  and,  there 
fore,  curtailed  his  freedom  and  curtailed  complete 
ness.  Happiness,  if  it  was  to  be  found  at  all,  was 
to  be  found  only  in  the  perfect  development  of  self, 
and  such  a  development  was  impossible  so  long  as 
self,  seeking  expression  in  politics,  found  expression 
thwarted  by  an  evil  opposition  in  the  political  field. 

Nevertheless,  this  opposition,  Luke  was  sure,  could 
be  crushed  and  swept  away;  his  ideal  for  the  good  of 
the  city,  which  had  become  his  own  good,  could  be 
attained;  and  then,  he  told  himself,  that  other  part 
of  him,  the  part  that  loved  Betty  and  that  Betty 
loved,  could  enjoy  Betty  as  the  reward  of  the  whole 
man.  It  was  as  if  he  were  one  of  two  runners. 

193 


i94  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Betty  he  saw  not  as  the  goal,  but  as  the  prize  to  be 
given  him  for  leading  at  the  goal;  not  a  prize  that 
any  other  runner  could  win  by  worsting  him  in  the 
race,  but  a  prize  that  he  himself  could  deserve  only 
if  he  were  to  lead  at  the  finish. 

He  was  thinking  of  this  when  he  left  the  Subway 
station  and  walked  toward  the  Arapahoe,  but  under 
his  conscious  thoughts  the  subconscious  self  was  still 
tingling  with  the  emotions  that  had  flamed  up  in  him 
when  he  took  Betty  in  his  arms  and  felt  her  lips  on 
his.  He  quivered  with  the  physical  recollection,  and 
though  the  flame  had  burned,  his  flesh  found  the  pain 
of  it  sweet. 

At  the  corner  nearest  the  apartment  house  in  which 
he  lived,  he  became  aware  of  a  woman.  The  street 
was  nearly  empty,  but  until  she  was  close  beside  him 
he  did  not  notice  her.  How  she  came  to  be  at  his 
elbow  he  did  not  appreciate,  nor  did  he  at  first  realize 
whether  she  were  young  or  old,  beautiful  or  ugly. 

"Will  you  tell  me  the  time,  please?"  she  asked. 

Luke's  experience  in  Leighton's  office  had  long  ago 
taught  him  that  such  a  request  was  the  commonest 
form  of  watch-stealing,  but  he  was  not  afraid  of 
losing  his  watch.  He  stopped  under  a  lamp-post. 

"  Certainly,"  he  said. 

"  I  know  it's  late,"  pursued  the  woman,  "  but 
I  don't  know  how  late." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

The  words  were  thick.  The  voice  was  the  voice 
of  all  the  phantoms  of  the  street,  low  in  pitch  and 
hoarse,  but  luring  because  of  all  that  it  connoted: 
because  of  the  mystery,  the  adventure  which,  after 
all  knowledge  of  her  sordidness  and  all  understand 
ing  of  her  frigidity,  the  woman  who  most  reveals 
her  body  has  maintained  by  that  revelation's  forced 
screening  of  her  soul. 

Luke  consulted  his  watch. 

"  It's  a  quarter  to  eleven,"  he  said. 

He  looked  at  her,  and  he  was  glad  to  look.  That 
she  was  well-dressed,  but  overdressed  and  wore  her 
clothes  with  the  defiance  of  one  unhabituated  to  them, 
did  not  impress  him.  What  impressed  him  was  the 
face  that,  in  spite  of  its  tokens  of  much  evil  done  and 
more  evil  suffered,  retained  the  fragile  beauty  which 
men  associate  with  innocence.  The  calm,  broad  brow, 
the  gray  eyes  wide  and  steady,  the  underlip  timidly 
drawn  back,  the  delicate  chin  upturned  above  a  slim 
white  throat,  reminded  him  of  the  pictures  of  Joan 
of  Arc  on  trial  and  foredoomed  by  her  English  ac 
cusers. 

"  It  is  late,  isn't  it?  "  she  said. 

'Yes,"  said  Luke.  He  had  forgotten  about  his 
watch ;  he  was  holding  it  loosely  in  his  hand. 

"  I  wonder,"  said  the  woman,  "  if  it's  too  late  for 
you  to  take  a  little  walk  with  me." 


196  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Her  eyes  had  narrowed  coldly;  a  smile  that  was 
a  trade  grimace  distorted  her  mouth. 

The  change  in  her  wakened  Luke.  He  restored 
his  watch  to  his  pocket.  He  felt  a  slight  chill  at  his 
heart  and  a  self-accusation. 

"No,"  he  said  brusquely;  and  started  to  walk 
away. 

The  woman  followed. 

"  Aw,  come  on,"  she  urged.  Her  tone  coarsened 
under  his  refusal. 

"  No,"  said  Luke. 

"  Please?  "  her  voice  whined.  She  put  her  hand 
on  his  arm. 

Luke  shook  off  the  hand.  He  was  too  angry  with 
himself  to  have  pity  for  her. 

"  Stop  this,"  he  ordered. 

"  But  won't  you  listen?  "  The  woman's  hand  re 
turned  persistently;  it  clutched.  "I  got  somethin' 
to " 

Luke  saw  that  they  were  at  the  door  of  the 
Arapahoe. 

"  I'm  sorry,"  he  said,  "  but  I  can't  stop  to  listen 
to  you." 

He  went  into  the  apartment  house. 

§  2.  He  really  was  sorry.  Once  inside  the  door  of 
the  Arapahoe,  he  said  to  himself  that  the  woman 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  197 

Had  only  been  plying  her  trade,  and  that  what  he 
had  visited  upon  her  was  a  portion  of  the  wrath 
against  his  own  momentary  weakness.  He  could 
never  have  given  way  to  her,  because  he  was  so  firm 
in  his  resolve  to  live  worthily  for  Betty  that  he  could 
not  enough  want  to  give  way  to  offset  the  efficacy  of 
his  resolve;  only  the  portion  of  him  subject  to  his 
will  without  being  a  part  of  his  will  had  momentarily 
weakened;  it  could  not  have  rebelled  victoriously, 
and  although  it  merited  punishment,  the  exterior 
cause  of  its  weakness  did  not  deserve  censure.  Alto 
gether,  Luke  concluded,  he  had  behaved  in  a  rather 
contemptible  fashion. 

His  mind  was  immediately  diverted.  As  he  passed 
the  clerk's  desk  in  the  hall,  the  clerk  beckoned  darkly 
to  him. 

''  There  are  some  reporters  looking  for  you  here," 
he  whispered.  "  I  sent  them  into  the  waiting-room 
so's  you  could  get  by  them  when  you  came  in,  if  you 
wanted  to.  Do  you?  " 

Luke  almost  laughed  as  he  reflected  upon  the 
figure  he  would  have  presented  to  the  representatives 
of  the  press,  had  they  been  waiting  for  him  at  the 
door. 

"  Yes,  I'll  see  them,"  he  said. 

They  came  to  him  in  a  body,  seven  of  them.  They 
worked  for  the  morning  papers  and,  because  the 


I98  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

evening  papers  had  printed  Luke's  letter  about  his 
resignation  from  the  District-Attorney's  staff,  they 
wanted  a  fresh  sensation  for  their  journals. 

Luke  leaned  against  a  pillar  in  the  lobby  and 
talked  to  them.  Most  of  them  he  had  met  while  in 
Leighton's  office.  Personally,  he  was  popular  with 
them,  and  he  liked  them. 

"  I'll  say  anything  you  want,"  he  agreed.  "  But 
what  is  there  to  say?" 

The  spokesman  was  a  keen  man  with  curling 
black  hair. 

"  You  might  develop  the  last  part  of  your  letter," 
he  suggested:  "  the  part  about  the  big  financiers  that 
you're  going  gunning  for." 

"  I  haven't  got  the  gun  yet,"  objected  Luke.  "  Bet 
ter  wait  and  see  if  I'm  nominated,  boys." 

"  Oh,  you'll  be  nominated,  all  right.  Come  on, 
Mr.  Huber." 

"  You're  going  to  support  the  League,  anyhow," 
said  a  stout  little  fellow,  whose  paper  opposed  all  re 
formers.  "  You  can  tell  us  how  the  League  will  go 
for  the  men  at  the  top." 

To  this  Luke  agreed.  He  began  to  speak  and,  as 
he  saw  the  busy  pencils  noting  his  best  phrases  upon 
sheets  of  roughly-folded  copy-paper,  he  fell  into 
stride  with  his  subject.  He  declared  that  the  League 
meant  to  put  an  end  to  the  influence  of  Big  Business 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  199 

in  municipal  politics,  and,  although  he  mentioned  no 
names,  it  was  evident  what  big  business  men  he  had 
in  mind. 

The  reporters  tried  to  make  him  mention  names, 
but  their  efforts  only  seemed  to  restore  his  caution. 
They  urged  him  to  be  specific  in  his  charges  against 
the  present  administration  of  the  District-Attorney's 
office;  but  here  again  they  encountered  the  impassive 
side  of  Luke  with  which  they  were  more  familiar. 

"  No,  no,"  said  Luke;  "  there  may  be  a  time  for 
all  that,  but  this  isn't  the  time.  Just  wind  up  by 
saying  we  mean,  once  and  for  all,  to  put  Wall  Street 
out  of  politics  and  graft  out  of  the  administration 
of  justice  in  New  York  City  and  to  keep  them  out, 
if  we  have  to  send  every  financier  and  every  police 
man  to  jail.1* 

§  3.  The  reporters  made  all  that  they  could  of 
what  Luke  gave  them,  and  the  next  morning's  papers 
were  full  of  it.  Leighton,  on  his  way  downtown, 
read  them  with  anger  against  Luke  and  annoyance 
with  himself  for  losing  a  man  that  might  have  been 
so  valuable  to  him. 

He  began  to  be  afraid  of  the  effect  of  Huber's 
implications  regarding  the  District-Attorney's  office. 
Remembering  that  his  party  was  in  no  position  to 
risk  putting  up  a  weak  candidate,  he  telephoned  to 


200  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

George  J.  Hallett  and  was  granted  an  interview:  he 
said  he  knew  of  the  letters  in  Luke's  possession  and 
knew  how  Luke  came  by  them. 

Hallett,  whose  office  was  almost  the  counterpart 
of  that  in  which  he  consulted  with  his  master  and 
Rivington,  sprawled  in  a  deeply  upholstered  chair. 
He  smoked  steadily  at  a  cigar,  and  when  the  letters 
were  mentioned,  he  accepted  the  mention  with  com 
plete  composure. 

'Who  else  knows  about  'em?"   he   frankly  in 
quired. 

"  Nobody,"  said  Leighton — u  unless  Huber's  been 
talking." 

"He's  got  'em,  hasn't  he?" 

"  Had  them  the  last  time  I  saw  him." 

"Anyway,  you  haven't  'em?" 

"  No,  of  course,  I  haven't." 

Hallett  took  his  cigar  from  his  mouth;  he  looked 
at  the  cigar,  and  from  it  to  Leighton. 

"  I  don't  see  what  use  you  are  to  us,  then,"  he 
said. 

Leighton  understood  that  the  only  satisfactory 
way  to  deal  with  this  man  was  the  direct  way. 

"  I  can't  be  any  use  to  you  except  to  tell  you  where 
the  leak  is  these  letters  came  through." 
1  What  do  you  want  us  to  do  for  you?  " 

"  I  want  your  support  at  election  time." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  2or 

"  Can't  promise  it.  The  other  side  has  just  as  good 
a  claim  on  us." 

"Heney?" 

"  An'  the  whole  Democratic  organization,  yes." 

"  Would  you  promise  not  to  interfere  on  either 
side?" 

"  Can't  do  it.  You  see,  you  haven't  got  much  to 
sell." 

Leighton  ran  his  fingers  through  his  black  hair. 

"  Look  here,  Mr.  Hallett,"  he  began  again,  "  we 
don't  know  each  other  personally " 

"  That's  all  right,"  said  Hallett. 

"  Well,  then,  if  I  can't  count  on  your  influence  for 
the  election,  may  I  count  on  it  for  the  nomination?  " 

aWho  stole  those  letters?"  said  Hallett. 

"  I  can  count  on  you  people  in  the  matter  of  the 
nomination?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  A  man  named  Rollins." 

Late  that  afternoon  it  was  found  that  Rollins  had 
made  an  overcharge  for  postage-stamps  in  the  course 
of  his  secretarial  work.  He  was  arrested  and  "  rail 
roaded  "  to  jail. 

§  4.  It  was  somewhat  later  when  the  Republicans 
nominated  Leighton  and  then,  to  the  amazement  of 
the  public,  the  Democrats  and  Progressives  each  op- 


202  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

posed  him  with  candidates  so  weak  that  every  poli 
tician  understood  this  as  a  surrender  to  Leighton  in 
order  to  defeat  the  candidate  of  the  Municipal  Re 
form  League.  In  advance  of  their  occurrence,  how 
ever,  all  these  things  were  gossiped  about  by  the 
leaders  of  every  faction  and  so  confidently  expected 
that  plans  were  shaped  in  accordance  with  them. 
Somehow,  they  sent  word  ahead  to  the  Reform  head 
quarters  even  on  the  day  of  the  happening  that  set 
them  in  motion,  and  Venable  and  Nelson,  together 
with  the  other  executives  of  the  M.  R.  L.  bestirred 
themselves. 

"Where's  Yeates?"  asked  Nelson,  as  he  came 
into  Luke's  room,  where  Venable  and  Luke  were 
busy.  "  That  young  fellow's  never  around  when  he's 
wanted." 

"  He  sent  in  word  he  had  some  other  engage 
ments,"  said  Venable. 

"  Had  to  play  golf  with  Hallett's  son,  I  guess,  if 
it  wasn't  L.  Bergen  Rivington,"  Nelson  sneered. 
"  There's  too  much  society  in  that  boy  for  any  politi 
cal  usefulness." 

Luke  looked  up  from  the  notes  he  was  preparing 
for  his  formal  letter  accepting  the  nomination  that 
the  League  was  next  day  to  offer  him : 

"  Is  Yeates  a  friend  of  those  people?  "  he  asked. 
"  I  knew  he  knew  some  of  them,  but  is  he  a  friend?  " 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  203 

Venable  was  soothing. 

"  Only  socially,"  he  said.  "  Yeates  was  born  to  it, 
but  politically  he  is  all  right.  He  has  high  ideals  and 
a  really  fine  enthusiasm." 

"  Hum,"  said  Luke.  "  What  do  you  think  of  this 
paragraph,  Nelson?" 

He  read  from  his  notes: 

"During  the  past  few  years,  those  persons  in  a  position  to 
observe  the  inner  workings  of  our  politics,  both  in  national  and 
municipal  affairs,  have  been  alarmed  to  see  the  steady  encroach 
ment  made  upon  them  by  High  Finance.  There  is  no  longer  any 
room  left  for  doubt.  The  purpose  of  this  invading  power  is 
clear :  its  purpose  is  conquest.  Unless  the  free  voters  act,  and  act 
quickly,  the  true  government  of  the  United  States  in  general,  and 
of  New  York  in  particular,  will  not  rest  in  the  President  or  Con 
gress,  in  Mayors  and  Boards  of  Aldermen,  in  the  Constitution, 
the  charter,  or  the  courts :  it  will  rest  in  a  combination  of  Big 
Business  interests  that  will  control  the  men  elected  as  representa 
tives  of  the  people." 

Nelson  slapped  his  thigh. 

"  That's  it!"  he  said.  "That's  the  talk.  We 
ought  to  have  had  some  of  that  kind  of  medicine 
long  ago.  Look  at  all  this  recent  drug-legislation, 
for  instance.  You  can't  imagine  what  my  firm's  been 
up  against.  They're  getting  an  appetite  for  the 
wholesale  drug-trade  now,  these  big  fellows  are,  and 
they're  paving  their  way  by  lobbies  at  Washington 
and  Albany  and  half  a  dozen  state  capitals!  " 

The  three  worked  over  the  letter  for  the  rest  of 


204  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

that  day,  having  a  scanty  luncheon  brought  into  the 
office  from  a  nearby  restaurant,  and  talking  plans 
while  they  ate.  All  the  time  callers  were  sending  in 
their  names  with  requests  for  interviews,  workers 
were  reporting,  men  at  the  telephone  were  ringing 
up  to  ask  instructions,  and  clerks  and  stenographers 
were  running  in  and  out  to  deliver  telegrams  and 
special-delivery  letters  and  to  receive  replies. 

Luke's  only  appreciable  pause  was  to  read  two 
notes  of  congratulation  from  his  mother  and  Jane, 
the  former  commending  him  for  adopting  a  course 
that  the  writer  was  sure  her  husband  would  have 
adopted  had  he  lived,  the  latter  full  of  pride  in  his 
approaching  success,  but  ending  with  the  postscript: 
"  Jesse  [Jesse  Kinzer  was  Jane's  husband,  the  new 
Congressman]  says  that  conditions  in  New  York  are 
'  purely  local,'  whatever  that  means."  Altogether, 
Luke  had  a  busy  day.  He  was  a  tired  man  when,  at 
nine  o'clock,  he  again  rang  the  bell  of  the  Forbes 
house  in  Brooklyn. 

§  5.  To  Luke's  surprise,  it  was  Forbes  himself  that 
opened  the  door. 

"  I've  been  looking  for  you,"  he  said  seriously. 
"  Can  you  come  into  the  library?  I  want  to  see  you 
for  a  few  minutes.  It's  important." 

The   concluding  words  were   unnecessary.     The 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  205 

tone  of  the  words  that  preceded  them  would  alone 
have  been  sufficient  to  warn  Luke  of  trouble :  Forbes's 
voice  was  husky,  tense,  uncertain. 

"  Of  course,"  Luke  assented. 

He  followed  Forbes  into  the  library,  and  there,  as 
the  host  closed  the  door,  Luke  saw  in  the  face  that 
confronted  him  an  expression  which  conformed  with 
the  tone  and  import  of  Forbes's  first  words.  The 
elder  man's  face  was  haggard. 

"  I  shall  have  to  tell  you  something,"  he  was  say 
ing — "  something  that  I  ought  to  have  told  you  long 
ago,  or  as  much  of  it  as  had  happened  then.  But, 
you  see,  I  had  no  idea  it  could  be  so  important — ever 
be  so  important."  He  broke  off  with  a  remembrance 
of  his  accustomed  courtesy:  "I  beg  your  pardon. 
Won't  you  sit  down,  Huber?  I  quite  forgot  to  ask 
you.  For  my  part,  I  couldn't  sit  still  if  my  life  de 
pended  on  it." 

Luke  stood  by  the  center-table. 

"  No,  no,"  he  said.  "  Don't  bother — and  don't 
worry."  He  thought  that  Forbes  looked  as  if  death 
were  in  the  house.  "  Is  anything  wrong  with 
Betty?  "  he  suddenly  asked. 

"  No,  it's  not  that.  It's  what  I  say.  Of  course 
I  never  supposed  your  going  in  for  the  Municipal  Re 
form  League  movement  could  have  any  business  sig 
nificance " 


206  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Luke,  relieved  about  Betty,  was  unable  to  follow 
Forbes's  disjointed  sentences. 

"  It  hasn't/'  he  said.  "  It  hasn't  any  business  sig 
nificance  whatever." 

"  Ah  " — Forbes  shook  his  head — "  that's  what  I 
thought,  too.  But  it  has.  Huber,  this  may  mean  the 
end  of  R.  H.  Forbes  &  Son.  Think  of  it:  it  may 
mean  the  end  of  the  Business — a  business  that  has 
been  honorably  conducted  by  my  family  for  three 
generations." 

What  such  a  catastrophe  would  mean  to  Forbes  no 
body  knew  better  than  Luke,  but  how  the  Municipal 
Reform  League  could  be  concerned  in  it  was  beyond 
guessing. 

"  Won't  you  try  to  begin  at  the  beginning?  "  said 
Luke.  He  was  used  to  getting  coherent  stories  in 
preliminary  interviews  with  incoherent  witnesses,  and 
he  fell  into  his  professional  manner. 

"  It's  this  way."  Forbes  turned  his  gray  eyes 
away  and  fumbled  with  an  ornament  on  the  mantel- 
tree.  "  When  you  came  into  the  Business,  I  had 
several  loans  outstanding — the  Business  had.  They 
were  all  well  secured,  and  you  know  how  solid  the 
concern's  always  been.  With  the  money  you  put  in 
and  the  earnings,  I  was  able  to  take  up  some  of  them, 
but  there  were  the  improvements  and  extensions  made 
necessary  by  fresh  competition  and  the  new  inven- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  207 

tions  and  the  machine-trust's  raise  of  prices.  Well, 
I  had  to  leave  a  loan  outstanding  at  the  East  County 
National." 

"  Yes,"  said  Luke  encouragingly.  "  How  much 
was  it?" 

"  Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  It  was  a  good 
deal,  I  know,  but,  you  see,  when  I  negotiated  it " 

"  Never  mind  the  reasons  now.  What  were  its 
terms?" 

"  It  was  a  call-loan,"  said  Forbes  in  a  shaken 
voice. 

Luke's  amazement  conquered  his  reserve. 

"What?  And  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou 
sand?" 

"  Yes.  There  was  the  competition.  It  was  grow 
ing  hot.  The  Business " 

"  How  did  you  ever  arrange  it?  " 

"  I  was  surprised  myself  at  the  time  to  find  it  so 
easy,  but  I  was  too  glad  to  get  it  to  ask  questions. 
Now,  I  wish  I  had.  I  believe  the  bank  was  influ 
enced  by  some  people  that  wanted  to  get  us  into  trou 
ble — want  to  form  a  ready-made  clothing  trust." 

"  It's  incredible !  "  cried  Luke.  "  Not  one  of  the 
agents  that  I  had  look  into  your  business  for  me  men 
tioned  this." 

"  I  didn't  know  that,  Huber."  Forbes  looked  his 
appeal.  "  I  ask  you  to  believe  me." 


208  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  All  right.  It  was  my  own  fault.  I  should  have 
asked  you  more  questions.  What  puzzles  me  is  how 
this  loan  was  concealed." 

"  It  was  at  the  request  of  the  bank.  They  said 
it  was  so  unusual  that  they  didn't  want  it  more  widely 
known  than  was  absolutely  necessary,  and  I  agreed 
because  of  the  credit  of  the  Business.  Now  I  believe 
it  was  all  a  trap  set  by  the  men  that  want  to  form  the 
trust." 

Luke  did  not  pause  to  waste  reproaches  over  either 
his  own  stupid  blindness  or  Forbes's  culpable  rash 
ness.  He  pressed  forward: 

"And  now  they're  going  to  call  the  loan?" 

Forbes  bowed  his  head. 

"  And  we  can't  meet  it?  " 

"  If — if  we  tried,  we  could  do  it  only  by  wreck 
ing  the  Business." 

"  But  we  can  go  somewhere  else.  The  East 
County  isn't  the  only  bank  in  New  York." 

"That  is  what  I  thought.  It's  what  I  said." 
Forbes  was  swallowing  a  sob.  "  I  said  it  to  Osser- 
man — that's  the  president — I  said  it  to  him  himself." 

"Well?"  persisted  Luke. 

«  Well  "—Forbes's  eyes  met  Huber's— "  it  wasn't 
any  use." 

"  Now,  look  here,"  said  Luke.  He  put  into  his 
voice  a  calm  that  he  did  not  feel.  "  Try  to  tell  me 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  209 

just  what  happened.  I  can't  advise  you  till  I  know 
that,  even  if  I'm  not  the  business-fool  I  seem  to  have 
proved  myself  to  be.  First  of  all,  Osserman  sent 
you  some  sort  of  word,  didn't  he?  " 

"  Yes,  of  course." 

"What  was  it?" 

"  It  was  a  letter — just  a  personal  letter." 

"When  did  you  get  it?" 

"  About  eleven  this  morning." 

"  So  then  you  went  over  to  the  bank?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  And  asked  to  see  this  man  Osserman?  " 

"  Yes." 

uAnd  what  did  he  say?" 

"Well,"  he  said— "  I  can't  tell  you  exactly;  he 
was  careful  not  to  use  definite  words;  but  careful 
to  make  his  meaning  clear." 

"What  was  his  meaning,  then?" 

"  He  said  in  effect  that  he  understood  you  were 
interested  in  our  Business." 

"What  of  it?  That's  what  I  want  to  know, 
Forbes,  What's  my  interest  in  your  firm  got  to  do 
with  your  standing  at  the  East  County  National?" 

"  Oh,  he  didn't  say  at  first.  At  first  he  said  he 
understood  we  were  not  sound." 

"  So  you  told  him  he  was  mistaken  and  offered  to 
show  the  books?  " 


210  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Of  course  I  did."  Forbes's  chin  shot  upward. 
"  I  told  him  that  the  Forbes  firm  was  one  of  the  old 
est  and " 

"  Yes,  yes.  And  then  he  mentioned  me.  How  did 
I  hurt  the  firm's  standing?" 

"  He  was  really  very  plausible  about  that.  I 
must  say,  Huber,  that  he  rather  opened  my  eyes  to  a 
phase  of  your  political  activities  I  hadn't  before 
thought  of." 

"  What  phase?" 

"  To  be  quite  frank,  he  called  your  public  utter 
ances  wild.  He  said  they  attacked  credit  and  might 
shake  it.  He  even  intimated  that  if  you  were  elected, 
you'd  go  in  for  a  course  of  action — you  had  pledged 
yourself  to  go  in  for  one  that  would  upset  credit  alto 
gether.  And  that's  true,  Huber."  Forbes  gained  a 
certain  confidence.  "  When  you  come  to  think  of  it, 
the  business  interests  of  the  city — I  mean  the  sound 
conservative  business  interests — ought  not  to  be  made 
to  suffer  for  the  sins  of  the  big  financiers." 

Luke  recaptured  his  composure.  His  face  re 
laxed;  he  looked  lazy  and  uninterested. 

u  So  I  suppose,"  he  said,  "  that  this  banker  asked 
you  to  tell  me  to  get  out  of  the  fight." 

"  Yes,  but  of  course " 

"  Really,  that's  the  highest  testimony  to  the 
League's  strength  that  we've  had  yet." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  211 

"  Yes,  but,  of  course,  I  told  him  I  couldn't  do 
that." 

"What  did  he  say  then?" 

"  He  said  he  was  afraid  the  City  Chamberlain 
would  withdraw  all  the  city  funds  on  deposit  at  the 
East  County  if  the  bank  kept  on  carrying  a  loan  you 
were  interested  in." 

"  And  you  took  all  this  like  a  child?  " 

"  I  didn't.  You  ought  to  know  me  better  than 
that." 

"What  did  you  do?" 

"  I  was  indignant.  I  told  you  I  was.  I  said  I 
would  not  have  a  loan  from  a  concern  that  inter 
fered  with  the  political  convictions  of  its  creditors. 
I  said  I  would  go  somewhere  else." 

"Did  you  go?" 

The  sob  returned  to  Forbes's  throat. 

"Yes,  I  did,"  he  said;  "and  it  was  the  most 
humiliating  experience  of  my  career.  When  I 
thought  of  the  firm  of  R.  H.  Forbes  &  Son  begging 
credit,  I  could  hardly  bear  it.  But  I  went  to  the 
Lexington  National." 

"  They  turned  you  down?  " 

"  They  listened  very  politely  and  said  they  would 
consider  the  proposition." 

"  Well,  then,"  said  Luke,  "  you're  crossing  a 
bridge  before  you  come  to  it." 


212  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  No,  I  am  not;  for  presently  they  sent  over  a 
messenger  with  a  note  that  was  no  more  than  an 
insulting  refusal." 

"  You  gave  up  then?  " 

"No,  I  tried  again.  I  tried  Clement  &  Co." 
Forbes  seemed  unable  to  conclude. 

"And  they?"  urged  Luke. 

"  They  wouldn't  consider  it  for  a  moment, 
Huber." 

Luke  did  not  like  to  look  at  Forbes's  suffering,  but 
he  had  to  hear  the  end. 

"Well?"  he  said. 

Forbes  flung  out  his  hands. 

"  What  more  could  I  do?  "  he  demanded.  "  If 
it  became  known  that  the  firm  was  going  begging — 
yes,  begging — from  bank  to  bank,  what  would  hap 
pen  to  our  credit?  I  didn't  dare  to  go  anywhere 
else.  I — Huber,  I  went  back  to  Osserman  and  asked 
him  for  time." 

Luke  sat  down.  He  picked  up  a  paper  and  made  a 
transparent  pretense  of  glancing  at  it. 

"  Did  he  give  you  time?  " 

"  He  said  he'd  give  me  a  week." 

"  A  whole  week?  "  Luke  tried  to  appear  encour 
aged.  "  That's  six  good  working  days.  You  can  get 
the  money  together  in  that  time." 

"  Huber  " — Forbes  came  over  to  Luke  and  stood 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  213 

above  the  newspaper — "  I've  told  you  what  it  would 
do  to  our  credit  to  try.  But  I've  come  to  the  con 
clusion  that  we  could  not  get  this  money  from  any 
bank  in  America." 

"  What  do  you  mean?    Not  if  we  have  security?  " 

"  Not  if  we  could  offer  the  Metropolitan  Life 
Building  for  security.  Not  from  any  bank  in 
America." 

Luke  put  down  the  paper. 

"  But  that "  He  stopped  a  moment, 

and  then  went  on :  "  But  there's  only  one  group 
of  men  in  the  country  that  could  put  up  such  a 
wall." 

"  That,"   said   Forbes   simply,    "  is   the   group   I 


mean." 


Luke's  eyes  were  veiled.  He  rose  and  walked 
across  the  room.  Presently,  over  his  shoulder,  he 
inquired  sharply: 

"What  makes  you  think  this?" 

Forbes  was  frank: 

"  I  don't  know.  I  can't  tell  you.  A  hundred  little 
things.  But  I  am  sure." 

"  I  thought  you  said  something  about  a  clothing 
trust." 

"  I  did.  It  was  the  same  crowd.  Now  they  have 
some  additional  reason.  Oh,  I  couldn't  doubt  it. 
It  was  behind  every  word  Osserman  said.  It  was 


2i4  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

standing  back  of  his  words,  but  it  was  on  tiptoe, 
looking  over  them." 

Luke  turned  and  came  up  to  Forbes.  He  was 
quite  calm  again. 

"  I  know  what  you  want  me  to  do,"  he  said. 

"  Yes,"  said  Forbes:  it  was  his  way  of  saying: 
1  You  have  read  my  meaning,  and  I  will  stand  by 


it." 


'  Well,  I  can't  do  it." 

Luke  spoke  quietly.  It  hurt  him  to  have  to  say 
this  thing. 

"  I  was  afraid  that  was  the  way  you'd  take  it," 
said  Forbes. 

"  How  else  could  I  take  it?  " 

"  You  know  what  it  means  to  me,  Huber?  " 

1  Yes.  I  know  what  the  firm  means  to  you,  but 
I  can't  do  what  you  ask.  You  want  me  to  give  up 
what  I  think  is  right  for  the  sake  of  saving  your  firm. 
I  can't  do  it." 

"  It's  your  firm,  too,  Huber." 

"  Then  I've  got  a  right  to  hurt  it." 

"  I'm  not  asking  you  to  do  anything  wrong;  I'm 
only  asking  you  to  wait." 

"  That's  just  what  I  can't  do,"  said  Luke. 

Forbes  would  hear  no  more.  He  twitched  with 
a  spasm  of  weak  rage.  His  voice  rang  high. 

"  You're  a  fool !  "  he  cried.     "  You  talk  as  if  I 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  215 

were  trying  to  compound  a  felony  with  you.  What 
am  I  asking?  I'm  only  asking  you  to  hold  off  for 
this  campaign.  I'm  only  asking  you  to  stand  by  the 
man  that  took  you  into  his  business — my  Business,  the 
one  that  my  grandfather  founded  and  my  father 
handed  down  to  me.  Haven't  /  stood  by  you? 
Didn't  I  trust  you?  I've  kept  out  of  all  these  big 
combinations,  but  I  know  how  they  work — nobody 
can  help  knowing  these  days — and  when  I  took  you 
in,  how  was  I  to  be  sure  you  weren't  a  dummy  repre 
senting  somebody  else,  and  so  on,  higher  and  higher 
up,  till  the  trail  ended  with  just  these  same  men? 

But  no,  I  trusted  you.  I  trusted  you,  and  now 

You've  no  right  to  humiliate  me !  You've  no  right 
to  wreck  my  Business!  Do  you  know  what  you're 
doing?  You're  making  a  beggar  out  of  my  daughter 
— out  of  the  girl  you  told  me  last  night  you  wanted 
to  be  your  wife !  " 

Luke  had  been  expecting  this.  The  muscles 
about  his  mouth  tightened,  but  all  that  he  said 
was: 

"  I  suppose  you  have  spoken  to  her?  " 

"  Yes,  I  have.    Of  course  I  have !  "  cried  Forbes. 

"  And  what  does  she  say?  " 

Forbes  tried  to  take  Luke's  hand. 

"  Why  do  you  act  this  way  ?  "  he  pleaded.  "  Why 
can't  you  wait?  They  haven't  nominated  you  yet. 


216  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Withdraw  your  name.  That  won't  hurt  the  League, 
and  it  will  only  make  you  all  the  stronger  for  the 
next  time;  and  by  the  next  time  we'll  be  ready  to  meet 
all  opposition.  This  time  you  can't  be  elected  even  if 
you  are  nominated.  Why  do  you  want  to  jump  into 
the  fire?" 

"What,"  insisted  Luke,  "does  Betty  say?" 
She  was  at  the  door.     She  came  in  as  he  asked 
the  question.      She  looked  from  her  lover  to  her 
father,  and  then  she  ran  to  her  father  and  put  her 
head  on  his  shoulder. 

§  6.  Luke  took  a  short  breath.  He  wanted  to 
leave  them.  He  felt  that  he  could  not  face  much 
more.  He  wondered  what  Forbes  had  said  to  her 
and  how  much  she  had  heard  of  what  Forbes  and  he 
were  saying. 

"  Betty!  "  said  her  father.  He  patted  her  head. 
Luke  thought  that  the  caressing  hand  looked  old. 
"Betty!" 

She  spoke  with  her  face  hidden : 
"Oh,  Luke,  you  wouldn't  hurt  father?" 
"  It  isn't  that,  Betty."    Luke  was  angry.    The  girl 
was  behaving  as  he  thought  that  a  girl  placed  as  she 
was  ought  to  behave,  and  he  loved  her  no  less  for 
that,  but  he  was  angry  at  her  father's  weakness  in 
putting  her  in  such  a  position.     "  It  isn't  that,  Betty. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  217 

IVe  got  to  do  it.  You  don't  understand  these  things. 
You  can't  understand  them." 

"  She  knows  that  /  understand  them,"  Forbes  in 
terposed. 

"What  of  it?"  challenged  Luke.  "Betty,  I've 
got  to  do  what  I  think's  right.  You  wouldn't  have 
me  go  against  everything  I  believe,  would  you  ?  You 
wouldn't  have  me  do  something  I  thought  was 
wrong?  " 

Betty  half  raised  her  head: 

"  But  it  can't  be  wrong  not  to  ruin  us!  " 

Luke  turned  his  words  on  Forbes. 

"  I'll  withdraw  from  the  company,"  he  said. 

"  I  couldn't  buy  you  out,"  Forbes  answered.  He 
bit  his  lip;  shame  colored  his  cheeks.  "  And  if  you 
sold  to  anybody  else  it  would  be  sure  to  be  letting  in 
our  enemies.  Even  the  mere  report  that  you  wanted 
to  sell  would  wreck  us,  coming  on  top  of  those  bank 
interviews." 

Luke  knew  Forbes  was  right. 

"  Betty,"  he  said,  "  a  lot  of  men  that  believe  in  me 
are  going  to  offer  me  this  nomination.  It's  a  nomina 
tion  to  a  place  that  makes  its  holder  an  officer  of  the 
court,  an  officer  of  justice,  yet  the  plain  truth  is  your 
father  wants  me  to  let  these  other  men's  money,  or  the 
power  of  their  money,  buy  me  off  from  doing  justice 
to  them." 


2i 8  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Nonsense !  "  Forbes  was  strengthened  by  his 
daughter's  meed  of  comfort.  "  You  won't  be  elected 
if  you  are  nominated." 

"  They  seem  to  think  I  will,"  said  Luke. 

"  And  somebody  else,"  urged  Betty,  "  could  do 
just  as  well  against  them,  Luke." 

li  That's  not  the  point,  Betty.  It's  a  personal  ques 
tion,  a  question  of  personal  morals;  it's  a  matter  of 
my  own  conscience." 

She  turned  until  she  stood  no  longer  between  the 
two  men.  She  stood  at  her  father's  side.  Her  cheeks 
were  damp  from  weeping,  but  her  eyes  shone. 

"  But  think,  Luke,"  she  said.  "  You  are  young. 
Father's  twice  as  old,  and  he  must  know  more.  He 
must  be  right.  He  wouldn't  ask  you  to  do  anything 
that  was  wrong,  would  you,  father?  " 

Forbes  shook  his  head. 

"  I  know  it's  a  lot  for  you  to  have  to  give  up,"  she 
went  on;  "  but  you  ought  to  be  willing  to  give  up  a 
lot  if— if  you " 

"  If  I  love  you?"  asked  Luke. 

She  met  him. 

"  Yes,"  she  said. 

"  She's  right,  Luke,"  nodded  her  father. 

'*  Then,"  pursued  Luke — the  tone  was  his  laziest 
— "  what  about  her  love  for  me?  Isn't  it  to " 

Betty  interrupted.     She  had  taken  Forbes's  hand: 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  219 

"  You're  not  going  to  make  me  choose  between 
you  and  father,  are  you?"  she  pleaded. 

"  I  tell  you,"  said  Luke,  "  it  isn't  anything  of  that 
sort,  Betty.  I've  got  to  do  what  I'm  going  to  do. 
You  haven't  any  choice,  and  neither  have  I.  You 
might  almost  say  it's  a  religious  question.  It's  like 
saving  my  soul.  I've  got  to  do  it;  I've  just  got  to; 
just  because  it's  the  one  right  thing,  I've  got  to  do  it. 
Why  " — his  manner  grew  tense — "  you  don't  know; 
even  your  father  doesn't  know.  This  North  Bridge 
wreck,  with  all  those  people  killed  and  wounded: 
that's  what  these  men  did,  these  men  that  are  trying 
to  keep  me  out  of  the  district-attorneyship." 

"The  North  Bridge  wreck?"  snapped  Forbes. 
"  That  was  on  the  M.  &  N.  What  are  you  talking 
about,  Huber?" 

Luke  realized  that  he  had  gone  further  than  the 
limits  of  his  promise  of  temporary  silence  concern 
ing  the  letters,  but  he  was  too  bitterly  tried  not  to  go 
still  further. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  I  mean  just  that.  Everybody 
knows  the  N.  Y.  &  N.  J.  crowd  own  the  majority  of 
the  stock  in  the  M.  &  N.,  and  you  know  it,  too. 
What's  more,  this  wreck  was  their  direct  fault.  I 
can  prove  that  and  I  mean  to.  That's  why  they're 
after  me:  I  mean  to  prove  it  if  they  don't  square 
things.  And  so  they're  afraid  of  me." 


220  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Ridiculous  !  "  said  Forbes.  "  That's  just  the 
trouble  with  you,  Huber:  you're  going  about  making 
wild,  unfounded  statements  like  this." 

"  I  ought  not  to  tell  even  you  two,"  Luke  an 
swered;  ubut  the  fact  is,  I  have  letters  written  by 
one  of  these  men  that  will  substantiate  every  word 
I  say." 

"  You  mean  they'll  show  these  people  owned  the 
road?" 

"  Practically,  and  ordered  the  poor  rails  that  caused 
that  wreck." 

"Absurd:  they  couldn't  do  that.  They  didn't 
operate  the  road.  This  sort  of  thing  is  what  is  up 
setting  legitimate  business:  a  few  men  going  on  the 
way  you  are.  I  don't  think  these  people  at  the 
top  are  any  better  than  they  should  be — I've  often 
said  so  to  you — but  you  can't  go  around  calling  them 
murderers.  That's  ridiculous." 

Before  Luke  could  reply,  Betty  again  shifted  the 
issue. 

"  Luke,  you  won't  do  it?  "  she  appealed.  "  You'll 
give  it  up — for  father's  sake?" 

He  started  to  speak,  but  she  dropped  her  father's 
hand  and  came  to  him  with  hers  upraised. 

"  No,"  she  said;  "  don't  tell  me  now.  Don't  say 
anything  now.  Don't  speak.  You'll  only  be  sorry. 
You're  hurt  and  angry.  Of  course,  you  are.  Go 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  221 

away.  Wait.  Go  away  just  for  to-night  and  think 
it  over,  and  come  back  to-morrow."  Her  hand 
crept  into  his.  "  I  know  it's  awfully  hard  for  you 
to  give  it  all  up,  even  for  a  few  years.  I  know  what 
it  means  to  you.  Don't  think  I  don't  know,  Luke. 

But "  She  looked  into  his  face.  "  Please, 

dear?" 

His  face  was  set. 

"  Good-by,"  he  said. 

"  You'll  be  back  to-morrow?  " 

He  freed  himself. 

"  Yes,"  he  said.     "  Good-night." 

§  7.  It  was  simply  that  he  could  not  stay  any 
longer.  He  left  the  house  with  his  mind  made  up; 
he  would  not  withdraw  from  the  fight  for  the  district- 
attorneyship.  To  keep  his  word,  he  would  go  back 
to  see  her  next  day,  but  he  would  go  back  only  to 
end  what  he  had  not  the  heart  to  end  to-night. 

The  thing  had  ended  itself.  This  was  the  con 
clusion  of  all  his  chances  for  Betty.  They  were  over. 

He  loved  her.  He  went  away  from  her  with  the 
certainty  that  nothing  which  life  might  henceforth 
rob  him  of  could  be  the  equal  of  this  loss. 

Yet  he  did  not  blame  her.  Brought  up  as  he  had 
been,  he  believed  that  her  attitude  was  the  inevitable 
one  and  the  right.  He  had  ventured  that  single 


222  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

question  about  the  test  of  her  love  for  him,  but  he 
felt  that  it  was  an  unfair  question.  Until  a  girl  mar 
ried,  her  first  duty  was  toward  her  parents.  His  own 
duty  and  Betty's  duty  clashed.  There  was  no  pos 
sibility  of  compromise.  Forbes  was  a  weakling,  but, 
in  cleaving  to  Forbes,  Betty,  Luke  felt,  did  the  only 
thing  that  she  rightly  could  do. 

He  wondered  what  would  come  of  that  side  of  his 
life  which  she  had  gone  out  of.  As  much  as  might 
be,  he  would  crowd  its  borders  with  the  activities 
of  his  professional  and  political  work,  but  some 
thing  of  the  space  would  remain:  it  belonged.  He 
was  still  black  with  the  despair  of  his  loss  when  he 
turned  into  Thirty-ninth  Street  and  saw,  standing 
there  as  if  waiting  for  him,  the  girl  that  looked  like 
Joan  of  Arc. 

"  I've  been  waitin'  for  you,"  she  said. 

Her  cheeks  and  mouth  were  not  painted  to-night, 
and  their  lines  were  softer;  they  spoke  only  of  what 
she  had  suffered  and  not  of  what  she  had  inflicted. 
Her  eyes  were  wet  with  tears;  her  underlip  quivered. 

"  I  thought  I  told  you  last  night,"  began  Luke. 

"  I  know,"  she  said.  "  An'  then  I  wanted  what 
you  thought.  But  not  now,  not  to-night."  She  spoke 
rapidly  as  if  determined  that  he  should  hear  her  out 
before  he  could  escape.  "  Don't  mind  the  way  I 
talk.  I  just  kind  of  talk  that  way  because  it  gets 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  223 

like  a  habit.    What  I  want's  help.     I'm  in  trouble. 
Honest  to  God  I  am." 

She  was  surely  in  trouble,  and  she  was  beautiful. 

"  You  mean "     His  hand  went  to  his  pocket. 

"  No,  not  money,"  she  said.  u  It  ain't  that.  It's 
about  my  sister.  They've  got  her;  my  fellow  has. 
Listen."  She  seized  his  wrist.  "  Will  you  listen  a 
minute,  please?  Here,  if  you  don't  want  no  one  to 
see  you  in  this  here  apartment  house,  come  on  over 
here  toward  Six'  Av'nue.  They've  got  her:  my  kid 
sister  I  " 

Luke  looked  at  the  woman.  He  could  see  nothing 
but  sincerity.  He  was  not  afraid  of  an  attempt  at 
robbery,  and  he  could  think  of  no  other  reason  for 
her  request  except  the  one  she  gave. 

"  Yes,  I'll  go  with  you,"  he  said. 

She  hurried  him  into  the  darker  street. 

"Listen,"  she  said:  "I'm  in  the  business.  You 
know  that.  I  don't  let  on  to  be  nothin'  much.  But 
I've  got  a  kid  sister  that  lives  home ;  an'  she's  straight, 
Jenny  is.  Well,  I  was  talkin'  to  her  to-night  when 
my  fellow  came  up,  an'  he  sent  me  on  an  errand — we 
was  all  standin'  right  over  on  that  corner — an'  when 
I  come  back,  they  was  gone,  both  of  them — an'  I 
know  he's  got  her  in  here  in  Pearl's  Six'  Av'nue 
place." 

"  How  do  you  know  that?  " 


224  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  I  guessed  it,  an'  then  I  rang  the  bell  an'  one  o' 
the  girls  told  me  I  was  on,  an'  then  Pearl  came 
down  an'  yelled  for  the  bouncer  an'  they  throwed 
me  out." 

In  the  lamplight  of  the  street  her  face  looked  like 
the  face  of  an  innocent  girl. 

"  Why  didn't  you  call  a  policeman?"  asked 
Luke. 

u  Aw,  you  know  them.    Pearl  stands  in." 

"  But  they'd  have  got  your  sister,  anyhow." 

"  Not  the  cop  on  this  beat.  I  wouldn't  give  up 
to  him  the  other  night,  and  he  run  me  in." 

They  stopped  at  a  narrow  door.  There  was  a 
shop  on  one  side  of  it  and  a  saloon  on  the  other. 

"  This  is  the  place,"  said  the  girl.  "  Pearl's  joint's 
over  the  store." 

u  You  want  me,"  asked  Luke,  "  to  go  in  and  bring 
your  sister  out?  " 

The  girl  assented.  "  She's  only  a  kid.  I  know 
what  I  am  all  right;  but  she's  only  a  kid,  an'  she's 
straight;  she's  always  been  straight.  You  won't  have 
no  trouble.  They're  always  scared  of  anybody  like 
you.  You'll  do  it,  won't  you?  "  She  leaned  toward 
him.  "  You  ain't  afraid?" 

The  infamy  burned  him. 

"  Afraid  ?  "  he  said  slowly.  "  No,  I'm  not  afraid." 
He  rang  the  bell. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  225 

The  girl  wrung  her  hands. 

"  You're  good.  You're  awful  good.  Mamie'll 
owe  just  everything  to  you." 

"Who  will?"  asked  Luke. 

"  Mamie.    That's  my  sister's  name.     She'll " 

"  I  see,"  said  Luke. 

The  door  opened.  A  negro  servant  stood  in  the 
darkened  hallway  before  them.  Luke  and  the  girl 
stepped  inside. 

'  Wait  a  minute,"  said  Luke  quietly. 

He  brushed  the  servant's  hand  from  the  knob.  He 
saw  the  two  women  standing  open-mouthed,  but  be 
fore  words  came  to  them,  he  stepped  back  into  the 
street,  closing  the  door  behind  him.  The  girl's  slip 
about  her  sister's  name  had  saved  him. 

§  8.  He  was  glad  to  be  in  the  light.  He  hurried 
across  the  street  with  no  purpose  but  that  of  getting 
as  quickly  and  as  far  from  the  house  as  possible.  He 
was  escaping. 

For  a  minute  or  more  he  did  not  know  what  it 
was  that  he  was  escaping  from.  Then  he  glanced 
back  toward  the  doorway. 

Three  policemen  were  entering  the  doorway.  As 
Luke  reached  the  corner,  a  gong  clanged  and  a 
patrol-wagon  turned  into  Sixth  Avenue. 

A  messenger-boy,  who  had  been  standing  on  the 


226  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

corner,  began  to  trot  after  the  wagon.    Luke  stopped 
him. 

"What's  the  matter?"  asked  Luke. 
The  boy  turned  to  him  a  leering  face : 
"  It's  a  raid,  I  guess.     I  knovved  there  was  some- 
thin'  doin'  when  I  seen  that  patrol  standin'  over  on 
Thirty-nint'  Street." 


CHAPTER  XI 

§  i.  Luke  wanted  to  dismiss  the  episode  of  the  raid 
as  a  coincidence.  He  tried  to  argue  that  the  girl  had 
been  a  stool-pigeon  employed  to  get  him  into  the 
Sixth  Avenue  house  solely  for  the  purpose  of  robbery 
by  confederates  waiting  for  her  there.  Schemes  of 
that  sort  were  common  enough  in  New  York  and 
succeeded  in  spite  of  their  clumsiness;  the  more  often 
one  was  reported  in  the  papers  and  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  papers,  the  readier  a  certain  portion 
of  the  public  was  to  succumb  to  the  next  attempts. 
Luke  wanted  to  believe  that  the  appearance  of  the 
police  might  have  proved  welcome  enough  for  him. 

It  was  the  news  Forbes  had  given  him  that  weighed 
against  any  such  supposition.  If  his  enemies  were 
at  work  to  ruin  him  financially,  they  might  well  be 
at  work  to  break  him  and  bring  him  to  terms  by  means 
of  a  scandal  in  the  police  courts.  It  was  all  very  well 
to  say  that  the  attack  on  the  Forbes  company  ought 
to  suffice  them:  Luke  began  to  feel  that  these  foes 
were  the  kind  who  want  certainty  enough  to  use  more 
than  one  method  of  securing  it.  He  had  heard  of  a 

227 


228  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

rebellious  city  official  thus  captured  in  a  raid  on  a 
gambling-house.  That  man,  he  had  been  told,  was 
released  from  the  police  station  only  upon  signing  a 
compromising  paper,  which  was  thereafter  held  by  his 
political  superiors  as  a  bond  to  assure  his  future 
obedience  to  their  wishes.  Luke  saw  how  a  similar 
course  could  have  been  followed  in  regard  to  him 
self. 

What  worried  him  most,  however,  was,  of  course, 
the  break  with  Betty  and  the  difficulties  in  which  he 
had  innocently  entangled  her  father.  He  was  sin 
cerely  sorry  for  Forbes,  whose  shortcomings  were 
forgivable  because  of  worship  of  tradition,  and  the 
loss  of  Betty  meant  a  descent  into  the  pit  of  despair. 

It  was  early  morning  before  a  sudden  hope  came 
to  Luke.  He  had  lain  sleepless  for  hours,  not  trying 
to  solve  his  financial  riddle,  but  only  contemplating 
its  apparent  impossibility  of  solution,  and  he  had 
turned  from  that  to  the  machinations  of  his  enemies 
with  genuine  relief.  This  time  the  change  must  have 
rested  his  resourcefulness,  for,  in  the  midst  of  tearing 
at  the  sticky  strands  in  which  Stein  and  the  men  behind 
Stein  had  enmeshed  him,  the  name  of  Ruysdael  shot 
into  his  mind  as  the  name  of  one  who  could  and  might 
advance  the  money  to  save  Forbes  and  bring  back 
Betty.  He  would  go  to  Ruysdael  at  the  earliest  pos 
sible  moment. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  229 

With  that  thought,  he  could  dismiss  all  memory 
of  the  raid  in  Sixth  Avenue.  Almost  immediately  he 
fell  asleep. 

§  2.  The  next  day  was  not  without  its  fresh  warn 
ings  from  the  powers  that  opposed  him,  and  the  first 
of  these  came  from  the  headquarters  of  the  Municipal 
Reform  League  itself.  Luke  thought  it  better  taste 
for  him  to  remain  away  from  the  headquarters  while 
the  formalities  of  the  nomination  were  gone  through 
with  by  the  committee  that  was  then  to  make  its  ticket 
regular  by  means  of  petition.  But  it  was  too  early  in 
the  day  to  call  on  Ruysdael,  so  he  remained  in  his 
rooms  at  the  Arapahoe,  and  here,  at  eleven  o'clock, 
Venable  telephoned  him. 

"  The  meeting  is  over,'7  said  Venable. 

"  Good,"  said  Luke.  "  The  ticket  is  the  one  agreed 
on?" 

"  Yes.  You  have  my  congratulations,  Mr. 
Huber." 

"  Thank  you."  Luke  thought  that  the  tone  of  his 
supporter  was  somewhat  strained.  "  I  hope  every 
thing  went  off  smoothly,"  he  added. 

"  Well,  no,"  said  Venable,  "  it  didn't.  It  is  all 
right  now,  but  I  am  bound  to  tell  you  that  a  little 
opposition  had  developed  against  you.  We  overcame 
it,  but  it  was  there  and  from  some  men  that  we  had 


230  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

every  reason  to  believe  would  support  you.  I  don't 
understand  it,  Mr.  Huber;  it  was  mysterious." 

"  I'm  coming  right  down,"  said  Luke. 

At  headquarters  he  learned  little  more.  The  com 
mittee  had  met  with  no  indication  of  approaching 
trouble.  Save  for  two  or  three  persons  whose  means 
of  livelihood  were  the  practical  organization  of  re 
form  political  movements,  nearly  all  the  members 
were  business  men,  in  small  but  sound  industries,  each 
of  unquestioned  probity.  The  candidates  slated  for 
every  other  post  were  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course; 
but  when  Luke's  name  was  brought  up  by  Venable  for 
the  district-attorneyship,  one  of  the  politicians  and 
several  of  the  business  men  opposed  acceptance. 
They  were  dogged,  but  vague.  The  politician  at  last 
spoke  of  Luke  as  having  courted  too  much  animosity 
from  the  upper  regions  of  finance. 

"  He  has  talked  too  wild,"  said  this  one.  "  He 
oughtn't  to  have  threatened  till  after  election.  Of 
course,  I  know  what  he's  got  to  do  if  he's  elected, 
but  he  needn't  have  begun  it  beforehand.  I  haven't 
got  anything  against  him,  but  he's  shown  his  hand  too 
soon,  and  so  he  won't  make  a  good  candidate." 

The  business  men  spoke  much  as  Forbes  had 
spoken.  The  Municipal  Reform  League  was  a  radi 
cal  organization,  but  it  ought  to  be  radical  within  rea 
son.  Huber's  public  utterances  had  been  too  sweep- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  231 

ingly  radical.  They  feared  him;  they  thought  him 
too  hot-headed.  He  was  still  too  young.  In  pursu 
ing  Big  Business,  he  was  sure  to  trample  smaller, 
legitimate  business;  he  would  upset  credit. 

The  majority  of  the  committee  was  loyal  to  Luke 
and  had  its  way.  Luke  received  the  nomination,  but 
such  dissenters  as  were  converted  came  to  him  half 
heartedly,  and  two  of  the  timorous  business  men 
withdrew  from  the  organization. 

"  Then,  there  is  Yeates,  too,"  said  Venable.  "  He 
wasn't  at  the  meeting,  but  he  telephoned  he  was  com 
ing  here  to  see  you  about  this  time,  and  I  gathered 
that  he  isn't  in  a  particularly  pleasant  frame  of  mind." 

Luke  thought  of  Venable's  long  years  of  battle  for 
reform. 

"  You  know  what's  at  the  back  of  all  this?  "  he 
said. 

"  I  think  I  do,"  said  Venable. 

"  I  mean :  you  know  who's  back  of  it?  " 

"  I  can  guess.  Your  published  attack  was  rather 
clear,  Mr.  Huber." 

'  Then,  are  you  and  the  League  prepared  to  go 
right  ahead?" 

"  Yes,  we  are." 

"You,  too?     You  individually?" 

Venable's  old  eyes  glittered. 

"  I  always  suspected  these  people,"  he  said.     "  I 


232  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

always  felt  sure  they  were  against  us.  They  were 
never  so  strongly  against  us  as  they  are  now,  but  their 
being  so  much  more  against  us  now  only  makes 
me  the  more  certain  that  what  we  are  doing  is 
right." 

"  They  have  a  good  deal  of  power,  Mr.  Venable." 

"  I  know  that  better  than  you  do,  my  boy;  but  they 
can't  hurt  me  personally,  if  that  is  what  you  mean. 
What  little  money  I  have  comes  from  the  rents  of  an 
uptown  apartment  house.  It's  in  a  good  neighbor 
hood  and  full  of  steady  people.  Nobody  can  take 
that  away  from  me.  It  isn't  as  if  I  drew  my  income 
from  bonds,  but  if  I  did,  and  if  these  people  could 
ruin  me  " — he  took  Luke's  hand — "  I  should  go  right 
ahead." 

They  had  been  talking  in  Luke's  office.  Shortly 
after  Venable  left  it,  Yeates  was  shown  in.  The 
young  man  was  excited. 

uLook  here,  Huber,"  he  said.  UA  little  bit's 
good,  but  you're  going  pretty  damned  far." 

He  dragged  a  chair  toward  Luke's  desk,  turned  it 
about,  and  sat  down  astride  of  it  with  his  arms  folded 
across  its  back. 

A  smile  twitched  at  Luke's  mouth. 

"What  way-station  do  you  want  to  get  off  at?" 
he  inquired. 

"  I  don't  want  you  to  make  a  monkey  out  of  the 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  233 

League,"  said  Yeates.  "  I've  been  reading  over  your 
letters  and  interviews  and  things,  and  I  think  you 
ought  to  realize  that  this  is  a  reform  organization 
and  not  a  bunch  of  Anarchists." 

"  You're  a  slow  reader,  Yeates.  Haven't  you  been 
hearing  these  things  talked  over,  too?" 

Yeates  blushed,  but  he  did  not  flinch. 

"Well,  what  if  I  have?  The  people  I've  heard 
talking  are  the  people  you've  been  slamming,  and  I 
want  to  tell  you  that  those  people  are  the  backbone 
of  this  country." 

"  I  haven't  mentioned  any  names." 

"  Oh,  don't  think  I'm  a  fool,  Huber,  and  don't 
think  these  people  are  fools,  either.  Everybody 
knows.  What  do  you  do  it  for?  It  won't  catch  any 
votes,  if  that's  what  you  want." 

"  I  rather  wanted  to  do  some  good." 

"  Good?  Good?"  Yeates  laughed  angrily. 
"  What  are  you  talking  about?  You're  talking  as  if 
these  men  were  pirates.  You're  talking  like  one  of 
those  fellows  that  make  speeches  on  a  soap-box  on 
the  corner.  It's  all  right  to  fight  police-graft,  and 
it's  all  right  to  run  the  crooks  out  of  town — that's 
what  the  League's  for  and  why  I'm  for  the  League — 
but  I'm  not  going  to  keep  on  with  an  organization 
that's  mixing  up  the  biggest  men  in  America  with 
that  sort  of  cattle.  I  won't  stand  for  having  my  per- 


234  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

sonal  friends  called  thieves.  I  can't  stand  for  it, 
and  I  won't!  " 

Luke  looked  at  his  watch.     He  rose. 

"  I  have  to  be  uptown  in  half  a  hour,"  he 
said. 

"  But  see  here "  Yeates's  chair  clattered  to 

the  floor  as  Yeates  sprang  up. 

"  When  this  nomination  was  offered  to  me,"  said 
Luke,  "  you  were  present.  Do  you  remember  some 
thing  you  said — something  about  outside  influences 
and  so  on?  " 

"Oh,  rot!  Who's  talking  about  outside  influ 
ences?" 

"  I  am.  The  nomination  was  given  me  along  with 
certain  promises.  I've  accepted  it.  I  mean  to  act  on 
the  strength  of  those  promises." 

"  You  mean  you're  going  crazy." 

"  Then,  the  League's  going  crazy,  too.  As  the 
only  sane  man  in  it,  I'm  afraid  you  won't  find  your 
self  in  congenial  company,  Yeates.  You'd  better  get 
out." 

"  Get  out?  "    Yeates  could  scarcely  credit  his  ears. 

"  Get  out,"  Luke  repeated. 

"  I  like  that!  "  shouted  Yeates.  "  This  is  a  nice 
reform  party,  this  is !  Anti-boss !  Why,  you're  more 
of  a  boss  than  Tim  Heney  ever  dreamed  of  being." 

Luke  had  not  looked  at  the  matter  that  way.    He 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  235 

saw  now  that  he  was  indeed  using  boss-methods, 
but  he  also  saw  that  boss-methods  were  unavoid 
able. 

"  This  League,"  he  said,  "  is  pledged  to  a  course 
of  action  you  don't  agree  with,  so  you  can't  con 
sistently  remain  in  it." 

"I  will!— I  will  get  out!"  cried  Yeates.  "I'd 
like  to  know  who  had  more  to  do  with  this  League : 
you  or  me.  Why,  you  only  came  in  the  other  day, 
and  it  was  me  and  my  friends  got  you  in.  But  I'll 
get  out  all  right :  you  needn't  worry  about  that.  I'm 
through." 

He  left  the  room.  It  was  a  few  weeks  later  when 
Luke  heard  of  Yeates's  engagement  to  the  girl  whose 
diamond  pendant  Luke  had  admired  the  first  time 
that  he  went  to  the  Ruysdaels'  house.  That,  Huber 
knew,  was  indeed  coincidence,  but  the  previous  con 
nection  of  Yeates  with  the  Municipal  Reform  League 
served  the  more  to  shake  Luke's  confidence  in  the 
radicalism  of  some  of  its  remaining  members. 

§  3.  His  mission  to  Ruysdael  was  far  more  satis 
factory  than  his  talk  with  Yeates.  Luke  did  not  tell 
the  millionaire  the  circumstances  that  made  it  neces 
sary  for  R.  H.  Forbes  &  Son  to  borrow  money,  nor, 
as  things  fell  out,  did  he  have  to  explain  why  the 
Puysdael  estate,  and  not  a  bank,  was  wanted  as  a 


236  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

creditor.  He  went  into  details  only  concerning  the 
nature  of  the  securities  that  Forbes  could  offer;  he 
was  honest  about  the  chances  of  the  business,  which 
he  believed  to  be  good,  and  he  was  no  more  pressing 
in  his  request  than  he  thought  it  wise  to  be. 

"  So,"  said  Ruysdael,  smiling,  "  you  find  some  use 
for  predatory  wealth,  after  all?" 

Luke  remembered  Jack  Porcellis's  assertion  that 
the  Ruysdaels  were  in  some  way  connected  with  the 
forces  now  opposed  to  the  loan,  but  the  connection, 
if  it  existed,  must  be  slight.  The  Ruysdael  money 
was  not  in  a  form  that  could  well  be  hurt  by  Luke's 
enemies;  and  Ruysdael,  though  subsequent  pressure 
might  well  stop  him  from  further  aid,  was  the  sort 
of  man  who,  having  gone  into  such  a  venture  as  the 
present  one,  would  not  undo  anything  he  had  already 
done. 

"  I  don't  consider  you  one  of  the  pirates,"  said 
Luke. 

uNo?  Well,  I'm  not  active,  perhaps,"  Ruysdael 
reassured  him.  "  I  was  just  thinking  you  rather 
strong  in  some  of  your  public  utterances.  There's  no 
use  in  attacks  unless  they  can  win,  you  know." 

The  swarthy  man  was  interested  in  Huber's  re 
quest,  though  solely  on  Huber's  own  account.  Ruys 
dael  felt  that  he  had  been  in  a  measure  responsible 
for  Luke's  investment,  and  he  was  anxious  to  protect 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  237 

that  investment  so  long  as  the  protection  was  real 
and  not  a  mere  tossing  of  good  money  after  bad. 
He  took  Luke  at  once  to  the  offices  of  the  Ruysdael 
estate. 

There  it  was  clear  that,  whatever  influence  Luke's 
enemies  might  have,  they  had  issued  no  orders  against 
him.  Perhaps  they  had  not  thought  of  the  possibility 
of  his  turning  in  this  direction,  perhaps  they  had 
meant  to  do  no  more  than  frighten  him  by  their 
show  of  power  with  the  banks.  In  any  case,  old 
Herbert  Croy,  the  manager  of  the  estate,  was  amiable 
and  suggested  that  Forbes  be  sent  for  without  delay. 

It  was  a  moment  of  triumph  for  Luke.  He  met 
Forbes  in  one  of  the  outer  offices  of  the  suite  used  for 
the  administration  of  the  Ruysdael  estate,  and  he  was 
not  entirely  sorry  to  find  Forbes  contrite. 

"  Is  it — it's  really  true?  "  asked  Forbes. 

He  had  been  having  a  bad  time.  His  face  was 
drawn,  and  the  feverish  hand  that  grasped  Luke's  was 
trembling. 

"  Yes,"  said  Luke.  "  I  think  I've  induced  Ruys 
dael  to  advance  the  money." 

Forbes  looked  away. 

u  I'm  sorry — very  sorry  for  my  attitude  last  night, 
Huber;  and  yet,  you  must  have  seen " 

"  That's  all  right.     Forget  it." 

"  I  know.     You're  good.     But  I  do  want  you  to 


238  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

understand.  And  you  have  turned  out  to  be  the  real 
business  man  of  the  pair  of  us,  after  all!  " 

"  So  it  seems,"  said  Luke  dryly. 

Forbes  missed  the  reflection  on  his  own  ability. 

"  Oh,  but  you  have !  Huber,  you've — you've  saved 
the  Business !  " 

"  No;  that's  up  to  you.  I've  only  made  it  possible 
for  you  to  get  the  money.  You  have  to  finish  con 
vincing  these  people;  so  buck  up." 

"  I  will,  I  will." 

"  And  they'll  probably  turn  in  and  fight  us  in  the 
market." 

"  We'll  see  about  that."  All  of  Forbes's  courage 
had  come  back  to  him.  "  Let  them  try.  Huber,  I 
can't  thank  you  enough.  I  never  can." 

"  Then  don't  try  to."  Luke  took  Forbes  by  the 
arm  and  led  him  to  the  door  behind  which  Ruysdael 
and  Croy  were  waiting. 

But  Forbes  felt  that  there  was  more  to  be  said. 
"  It  was  splendid  of  you,"  he  continued,  as  Luke 
drew  him  forward. 

"  Was  it?  You  overlook  the  fact  that  I  stood  to 
lose  a  little  money  of  my  own — if  nothing  else !  " 

"  I  did.  I  actually  did!  By  Jove,  I  don't  see  how 
you  can  forgive  me,  Huber." 

Luke's  answer  was  to  push  open  the  door.  Within 
half  an  hour  the  interview  was  concluded.  Forbes 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  239 

had  deposited  his  securities  and  received  a  certified 
check.  It  was  all  so  simple  that,  while  Luke  was 
wondering  why  he  had  not  thought  of  it  twelve  hours 
before,  Forbes  was  saying  to  himself: 

"  How  was  it  /  didn't  think  of  it  last  night?  " 

§  4.  Luke  intended  to  go  from  the  Ruysdael  offices 
to  those  of  the  League,  but  as  he  parted  from  Forbes 
on  the  street  after  the  loan  had  been  secured,  some 
thing  happened  that  changed  his  plans.  At  the  foot 
of  the  elevator-shaft  of  the  building,  he  noticed  a 
little  man  leaning  against  the  marble-paneled  wall : 
the  man  was  an  unostentatious  fellow,  commonplace 
as  to  both  face  and  clothes,  but  Luke  thought  he  had 
seen  the  figure  before. 

He  passed  with  Forbes  through  the  revolving 
doors  of  the  office-building  and  walked  to  the  curb. 
He  glanced  back  and  saw  the  commonplace  man  com 
ing  through  the  doorway  behind  him.  Then  he  re 
membered  :  when  he  left  the  Arapahoe  that  morning, 
he  saw  this  man  walking  down  the  other  side  of 
Thirty-ninth  Street.  He  had  thought  nothing  of  it  at 
the  time,  but  now  his  experience  of  detectives  told 
him  that  this  man  bore  the  marks  of  the 
detective. 

Luke  called  a  taxicab.  The  man,  he  saw,  prepared 
to  call  another. 


24o  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  I'll  try  to  keep  my  promise  to  see  Betty  to-night,'7 
said  Luke  to  Forbes. 

"  You  must,"  said  Forbes.  His  gratitude,  though 
not  so  hot  as  it  had  been,  was  still  warm. 

"  I'll  try.  There's  a  lot  to  be  done — politically, 
you  know.  But  I'll  try." 

They  shook  hands.  Forbes  started  away.  Luke 
gave  his  chauffeur  that  address  in  Wall  Street  at 
which  he  had  issued  his  orders  to  the  men  who  were 
now  fighting  him. 

He  was  disappointed;  the  person  whom  he  sought 
was  not  there.  Luke  doubted  the  statement  of  the 
doorkeeper,  but  could  get  no  other.  He  went  to  the 
offices  of  Hallett  and  to  those  of  Rivington,  but  with 
no  better  luck.  At  each  descent  from  his  taxi,  he 
caught  sight  of  the  detective  and  knew  that  the  detec 
tive  meant  to  be  seen.  Then  he  sought  the  quarters 
of  Stein,  Falconridge,  Falconridge  &  Perry,  and  was 
immediately  admitted  to  the  presence  of  the  head  of 
that  firm. 

The  Judge  sat  at  his  handsome  desk,  a  telephone 
at  one  elbow  and  a  vase  of  Abel  Chatney  roses  at  the 
other.  His  plentiful  white  hair  and  his  smooth  frock- 
coat  still  potent,  still  spread  around  him  the  aura  of 
dignity.  He  rose  slowly  as  Luke  came  in  and  bowed 
with  magisterial  calm. 

"How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Huber?"  he  said  pleas- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  241 

antly.  "  I  am  glad  to  see  you — very  glad,  in 
deed.1' 

He  resumed  his  chair.    Luke  took  a  chair  close  by. 

"  The  papers,"  pursued  the  Judge,  "  tell  me  that 
you  are  open  to  congratulations.  You  have  mine." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Luke.  He  stretched  his  legs. 
"  Yes,  I  got  the  nomination.  There  was  a  little  oppo 
sition,  but  I  got  it." 

"  Opposition?  "  The  Judge  raised  his  white  eye 
brows.  "  Hum !  Well,  of  course,  Mr.  Huber,  you 
had  to  expect  that  in  the  circumstances." 

"  What  were  the  circumstances,  Judge?  " 

Stein  shook  his  head  and  smiled  benignantly. 

"  There  you  go,"  he  said.  "  You  will  insist  on 
flattering  me  with  your  assumptions  of  my  omnis 


cience." 


"  But  not  of  your  omnipotence,  Judge;  for  I  did 
get  the  nomination.  What  were  the  circumstances?  " 

The  Judge  still  smiled: 

"  You  can't  expect  to  hurt  the  more  important 
business  interests  without  hurting  the  lesser  ones;  and 
the  lesser  dislike  being  hurt  even  more  than  the 
greater,  Mr.  Huber." 

"  I  gathered  that  you  might  think  so." 

This  time  the  Judge's  smile  was  a  song  without 
words. 

"  Very  well,"  said  the  younger  man.     "  As  I  say, 


242  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

I  overcame  the  opposition  inside  the  League.  I  be 
lieve  I  can  overcome  the  same  opposition  at  the 
polls." 

"  I  hope  so,"  Stein  answered.  "  But  it  is  a  pity 
that  you  have  not  more  powerful  backing." 

"  I  have  a  very  active  following  at  any  rate." 

"  It  will  require  a  great  deal  of  activity  to  over 
come  the  prejudices  of  the  majority." 

"  Yes,  but  I'm  not  talking  about  the  activity  of  the 
voters.  I  am  talking  about  the  active  following  I 
am  having  from  my  apartments  to  my  office,  and 
from  my  office  wherever  else  I  go." 

Judge  Stein  leaned  over  to  smell  the  roses  on  his 
desk.  When  he  looked  up,  his  firm  mouth  seemed 
innocent.  He  offered  the  vase  to  Luke. 

"  Aren't  they  beautiful?  "  he  asked. 

"  Quite." 

"  I  often  think  it  is  such  a  pity  that  they  haven't 
more  perfume.  What  they  have  is  good,  but  it  is  not 
a  great  deal.  What  we  gain  in  form,  we  lose  in 
scent.  The  law  of  compensation,  I  suppose." 

"  I  know  this  detective  had  orders  to  let  me  see  he 
was  following  me." 

The  Judge  put  down  the  vase. 

"  I  am  sorry  you  don't  care  for  roses,"  he  said. 
"  Yes,  Mr.  Huber,  I  dare  say  you  are  followed. 
You  are  fighting  the  Democratic  police  force  and 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  243 

the  Republican  District- Attorney's  office;  they  both 
have  detectives  attached  to  them,  and  I  have  heard 
that  they  frequently  use  their  detectives  to  watch  their 
political  rivals.  You  are  fighting  the  Progressive  or 
ganization,  too,  and  they  could  use  private  detectives. 
I  quite  agree  with  you  that  it  isn't  pleasant." 

"  This  fellow  isn't  on  the  job  to  watch  me.  He's 
only  used  to  frighten  me.  I'm  not  easily  frightened, 
Judge." 

"No?" 

"  No.  If  I  had  been,  I'd  have  turned  tail  when  your 
friends  tried  to  ruin  a  business  I  am  interested  in,  or 
when  they  tried  to  have  me  caught  in  a  police-raid." 
Luke  spoke  as  if  he  were  mentioning  incidents  in  the 
lives  of  people  dead  these  thousand  years.  "  The 
raiders  didn't  find  me,  as  you,  of  course,  know. 
What  you  don't  know  is  that  the  business  move  has 
failed  just  as  badly." 

If  he  had  not  known  it,  the  Judge's  face  betrayed 
no  surprise. 

"  Really,  Mr.  Huber,  I  told  you  at  our  last  inter 
view  that  I  had  no  professional  interest  in  this  mat 
ter." 

"  You  admitted  that  the  people  back  of  all  this 
were  your  friends." 

"  I  said  that  I  was  a  friend  of  certain  persons." 

"  Then,   you  might  as  well  say  now  that  your 


244  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

friends  intend  to  prevent  my  election  and  that  they'll 
use  any  means  to  do  it." 

"  Don't  get  excited,  Mr.  Huber."  The  Judge's 
right  hand  waved  a  deliberate  protest  against  Luke's 
violent  language.  "  Of  course,  I  say  nothing  of  the 
sort.  What  I  do  say  is  that  you  must  understand  that 
your  own  plan  of  action  is  bound  to  alienate  the  vot 
ers.  There  are  more  people  interested  in  this  election 
than  you  and  me — more  even  than  my  friends.  A 
great  many  people  don't  want  to  see  you  elected 
District- Attorney.  There  are  the  business  men,  there 
are  the  police,  and  there  are  the  people  of  the  under 
world.  You  have  been  reckless  enough  to  make  no 
ethical  distinctions.  You  lump  the  good  with  the 
bad,  and  attack  everybody.  Well,  you  must  not  be 
surprised  at  the  result." 

Luke  kept  to  his  low  key. 

"  I  only  came  here  to  tell  you  that  I  couldn't  be 
scared." 

"Why  to  me?" 

"  Perhaps  just  because  I  like  to  talk  to  you,  Judge." 

The  Judge  bowed  a  sincere  acknowledgment. 

"  I  have  already  told  you,"  he  said,  "  that  I  think 
you  could  go  far  if  you  were  cooler.  Now  you  are 
confusing  possible  legitimate  influence — I  say  pos 
sible,  not  certain — with  physical  attack." 

"  They've  both  seemed  probable,  Judge." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  245 

"  The  former  may  be.  As  to  the  latter — well,  like 
most  young  enthusiasts,  you  have  forgotten  that  elec 
tions  go  by  majorities,  and  that  the  majorities  are 
controlled  by  the  lower  forces  of  society.  That  is  the 
one  flaw  in  our  republican  system,  and  nothing  but  so 
cial  evolution,  generations  of  free  education,  will 
cure  it.  You  have  not  only  very  wrongly  assailed 
legitimate  business;  you  have  quite  properly  threat 
ened  to  close  to  the  criminal  classes  their  chief  sources 
of  revenue.  It  is  their  livelihood  against  yours.  My 
friends  can  have  nothing  in  common  with  these  peo 
ple.  We  cannot  control  them.  You  must  know 
that." 

Luke  shrugged  his  shoulders.    Stein  continued: 

"  As  a  politician  and  a  lawyer,  you  must  have 
counted  on  the  opposition  of  the  criminal  classes  when 
you  began  your  campaign.  If  you  did  not " — the 
Judge  bent  his  head  to  the  roses — "  well,  I  don't  want 
to  alarm  you,  but  if  I  were  in  your  place,  I  should 
leave  the  fight." 

Luke  got  up. 

"The  alternative?"  he  inquired. 

The  Judge  did  not  answer.  He  merely  looked  at 
Luke. 

"  I  won't  take  it,"  said  Luke. 

"  I  tell  you  again,  that  we  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  forces  that  seem  to  worry  you  most." 


246  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  I  know  you  say  so.  Well,  we  haven't  got  mucH 
further  than  at  our  last  talk,  have  we?" 

"  At  that  talk,  Mr.  Huber,  I  said  to  you  that  you 
could  help  yourself,  your  party,  the  public  good " 

"  If  I'd  do  what  you  wanted?  I  won't.  I  merely 
thought  that  if  I  told  you  you'd  failed  so  far,  you 
might  do  what  /  asked." 

The  Judge  sadly  shook  his  head. 

"  If  you  would  only  listen  to  reason!  " 

"  I'll  wait  for  the  month  and  not  a  day  longer. 
Meanwhile,  I'm  not  the  kind  that's  easy  scared. 
Nothing  you  can  do — you,  and  your  friends,  or  any 
body  hired  by  your  friends — will  stop  me." 

The  Judge  stood  up. 

"  I  am  afraid  you  will  be  stopped,"  he  said. 

"  Try  it,"  said  Luke.     "  Good-by." 

11  Good-day,  Mr.  Huber,"  Stein  replied.  "  I  shall 
always  be  glad  to  have  a  call  from  you.  I  am  inter 
ested  in  your  career — more  genuinely  interested  than 
you  suppose." 

§  5.  That  night  it  was  Betty  who  came  to  the  door 
when  Luke  rang  the  bell.  She  ran  to  it. 

"  Luke,"  she  cried,  u  father  told  me !  I  knew  you 
would  find  a  way  out.  And,  oh,  Luke,  I  don't  believe, 
in  the  end,  I  could  have  given  you  up,  even  if  you 
hadn't  found  one !  " 


CHAPTER  XII 

Luke  had  been  lied  to  at  the  offices  of  Hallett  and 
at  those  of  Rivington,  but  at  the  first  office  at  which 
he  had  called,  he  was  told  the  truth :  the  stout  man, 
with  the  bright,  short-sighted  eyes  and  the  pointed 
teeth  was  not  at  work  that  day.  He  was  not  at  work 
for  several  days,  and  breaths  of  rumors,  tremulous, 
expectant,  began  to  shake  the  threads  which  centered 
at  his  working-place. 

The  business  of  that  place  proceeded  with  its  usual 
regularity  and  speed.  Conover,  promoted  to  the  post 
of  confidential  clerk,  went  back  and  forth  from  Wall 
Street  to  his  master's  house  in  one  of  his  master's 
motor-cars.  Atwood  and  the  other  brokers  tele 
phoned  hourly  for  orders  to  the  house  uptown. 
Simpson  saw  callers.  But  in  the  inner  room,  Wash 
ington  wasted  his  stupid  solemnity  on  emptiness,  the 
ticker  spun  its  yards  and  yards  of  tape  for  none  to 
see,  and  nobody  looked  from  the  high  windows  down 
the  maze  of  streets  on  which  the  people  buzzed  like 
flies. 

All  this  had  been  thus  before,  and  more  frequently 
thus  during  the  past  few  years ;  the  man  with  the  hairy 

247 


248  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

hands  and  crooked  arms  often  suffered  attacks  from 
some  malady  that  the  newspapers  did  not  name.  His 
world,  therefore,  should  not  have  taken  the  present 
seizure  too  seriously;  but  it  always  leaped  to  the  be 
lief  that  each  seizure  was  the  last.  Rumor  never 
learned  from  precedence,  and  on  each  occasion  ex 
pected  the  worst.  Now  official  bulletins  and  author 
ized  announcements  of  a  slight  cold  and  a  catarrhal 
affection  of  the  mucous  membrane  of  the  throat  did 
not  check  rumor.  The  doctors  said  no  more  than  that, 
the  papers  printed  no  more;  but  news  of  another  sort 
spread  with  a  stronger  conviction  than  the  doctors 
could  secure  and  a  wider  circulation  than  the  circula 
tion  of  all  the  newspapers  combined. 

Rumor  said  that  the  sick  man  had  always  been  a 
glutton,  and  that  now,  at  last,  his  digestion  had  given 
way.  Rumor  said  that  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
rising  early  and  working  late,  in  the  dawn  and 
through  the  night,  planning  the  crowded  actions  of 
the  too  brief  business  day;  and  rumor  added  that  the 
price  of  these  exertions  must,  at  last,  be  paid.  Rumor 
said  that  the  man  overworked  his  brain  and  nerves, 
and  that,  at  last,  the  brain  was  working  no  more  and 
the  nerves  strained  to  breaking-point.  Rumor  whis 
pered  of  a  projected  sea-voyage  and  a  change  of 
scene  to  Biskra  or  the  Riviera,  and  rumor  sagely 
shook  its  many  heads. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  249 

The  luxurious  house  in  which  the  sick  man  lived 
among  the  best  things  that  his  money  had  bought 
him,  and  from  which  he  used  to  dart  out  each  morn 
ing  to  his  office  in  the  maze,  was  closed  to  the  re 
porters  and  to  most  of  the  acquaintances  who  called 
there.  L.  Bergen  Rivington  went  in  and  came  out. 
worried  and  elliptical.  George  J.  Hallett  went  and 
came  out  with  loud,  but  brief,  denials.  The  news 
paper  men,  from  the  steps  of  a  house  directly  across 
the  street,  watched  in  relays  and,  every  hour, 
rang  the  muffled  bell  of  the  sick  man's  house  and 
asked  the  same  questions,  and  were  given  the 
same  answers,  from  the  servant  who  came  to  the 
door. 

Then,  one  morning,  at  its  old-accustomed  hour,  the 
motor-car  that  the  sick  man  had  most  affected  purred 
up  to  the  house.  The  door  opened.  The  sick  man, 
apparently  no  longer  a  sick  man,  came  out,  neat  and 
trim  in  a  suit  of  russet  brown,  stepped  into  the  car 
and  was  started  for  his  office  before  the  quickest  re 
porter  could  get  a  word  with  him. 

"  He  has  quite  recovered,"  said  the  doctors,  when 
the  newspaper  men  overhauled  them,  and,  although 
they  swathed  the  answer  in  long  phrases,  they  would 
say  no  more  than  that. 

"  He's  quite  well  again  and  will  not  leave  New 
York,"  said  Simpson  to  the  representatives  of  the 


250  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

press  when  they  reached  his  Wall  Street  offices;  and 
Simpson  would  add  nothing  save  that  his  employer 
was  too  busy  with  accumulated  work  to  have  time  for 
press  interviewers. 

Simpson,  however,  and  Conover  too,  and  all  the 
office-force  and  all  the  brokers,  knew  something  more. 
They  knew  that,  whereas  their  master  was  generally 
not  quick  of  temper,  he  had  returned  to  work  in  an 
ugly  mood. 

There  was,  indeed,  a  great  deal  of  work  for 
him  to  do :  enough  to  ruffle  the  temper  of  any  man. 
He  did  it  all  grimly,  speedily,  with  no  waste  of 
words.  He  attended  to  each  detail  with  as  much 
energy  and  care  as  he  gave  to  every  other  detail,  and 
one  detail  that  he  dealt  with  in  a  necessarily  long 
talk  with  Hallett  he  dealt  with  thus: 

"What  about  that  Huber  matter?"  he  asked. 

Rivington  was  not  in  the  room,  but  the  master  of 
the  room  was  seated  at  the  head  of  the  table  just  as  he 
always  seated  himself  when  both  Hallett  and  Riving 
ton  were  there.  He  crouched  with  his  large  hands  on 
the  mahogany  surface,  the  thick  fingers  extended,  his 
elbows  raised  at  right  angles  to  his  torso  and  pointing 
ceilingward. 

Hallett  was  as  near  to  nervousness  as  he  could  be 
brought. 

"  Nothin'  yet,"  he  said. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  251 

"Hasn't  any  action  been  taken?"  snapped  the 
man  at  the  head  of  the  table. 

"A  lot  of  action's  been  taken,  but  nothings  come 
of  it  yet." 

"He  hasn't  been  bought?" 

"  Stein  says " 

"  I  know  that.    He  hasn't  been  stopped?  " 

"  No." 

"  Stop  him.  He's  got  to  be  stopped.  Don't 
you  know  that  he  really  might  hurt  us?  Stop  him." 

"  All  right,"  said  Hallett. 

"  And  now  what  about  this  Memphis  &  New  Or 
leans  deal?"  the  man  in  russet  brown  went  on. 
His  beady  eyes  glittered,  and  the  tips  of  his  stumpy 
fingers  caressed  the  shining  surface  of  the  table. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

§i.  Luke  was  no  longer  inclined  to  doubt  the  wide 
extent  and  the  unscrupulous  power  of  the  influences 
opposing  him.  When  he  had  first  come  to  acknowl 
edge  their  evil,  he  thought  it  latent  rather  than 
active.  Disillusioned  in  this  respect,  he  then  mini 
mized  its  activity,  maintaining  that  there  was  a  vast 
dfference  between  merely  questionable  moves  in  the 
game  of  business  and  the  hiring  of  criminal  violence. 
He  assumed  a  tolerant  skepticism  toward  the  vague 
stories  of  how  his  enemies,  long  before  they  became 
his  personal  enemies,  employed  the  basest  tactics  to 
crush  rivals  or  gain  ends,  and  even  when  he  narrowly 
escaped  arrest  in  the  raid  on  the  house  in  Sixth  Ave 
nue,  he  tried  to  tell  himself  that  these  enemies  were 
only  endeavoring  to  frighten  him.  Now  his  second 
interview  with  Stein  convinced  him  of  the  truth. 

Notwithstanding  this,  he  stubbornly  persevered. 
He  no  more  belittled  the  puissance  of  the  wrong 
against  which  he  had  arrayed  himself,  but  he  believed 
too  firmly  in  the  strength  of  his  own  right.  Had  he 
accurately  perceived  relative  values,  he  might  have 
broken  his  promise  and  tried  to  make  the  Rollins  let- 

252 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  253 

ters  public;  but  he  was  sure  that  he  could  evade  harm 
until  the  month  was  past,  and  so  he  kept  his  word  and 
went  about  his  hurrying  and  harrowing  political 
work  with  the  letters  scornfully  bestowed  in  an  in 
side  pocket  among  a  collection  of  trivial  memo 
randa. 

Events  moved  rapidly.  The  Ruysdael  loan  served 
its  turn,  but  its  turn  soon  gave  evidence  of  being 
brief.  As  if  from  plans  matured  at  least  a  year  be 
fore,  the  ready-made  clothing  trust  that  Forbes  had 
feared  sprang  into  full  being.  It  issued  from  the 
offices  of  Hallett,  but  it  originated,  almost  as  frankly, 
from  the  brain  of  the  man  whose  lieutenant  Hallett 
was.  It  threatened  the  life  of  the  Forbes  firm.  Con 
trolling  nearly  all  the  other  large  firms  of  the  coun 
try,  it  could  dictate  to  the  retail  trade,  and  secure 
favors  from  the  railways.  It  so  combined  its  mills 
as  to  reduce  running-expenses  as  a  whole  while  lower 
ing  prices  on  the  one  hand  and,  on  the  other,  raising 
wages  in  its  consolidated  factories. 

Luke  had  no  doubt  that  this  trust  had  been  long 
prepared;  he  also  had  no  doubt  that  its  birth  had 
been  hurried  as  a  new  move  in  the  war  against  him. 
He  knew  that  the  combination  was  contrary  to  the 
most  rudimentary  business  ethics,  and  he  hastened  to 
inquire  into  its  charter  and  organization,  in  the  hope 
of  finding  some  chink  in  its  armor  through  which  the 


254  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

blade  of  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law  might  be  thrust. 
He  overhauled  the  law-reports  in  the  libraries,  he 
consulted  the  most  eminent  corporation  authorities  in 
his  profession;  but  he  discovered  nothing  to  his  lik 
ing.  The  trust  was  built  upon  the  statute  itself;  the 
weakness  of  the  latter  was  the  firm  rock  on  which 
the  former  was  founded.  Its  strength  lay  in  its 
iniquity. 

"  It  is  absurd  for  us  to  suppose,"  the  greatest  law 
yer  in  New  York  told  him,  "  that  we  can  end  the 
trust  by  passing  laws.  The  trusts  are  a  step  in  social 
evolution,  and  you  can't  successfully  legislate  against 
evolution.  When  the  trusts  can't  hire  the  law's  mak 
ers,  they  will  still  be  able  to  hire  better  lawyers  to 
build  new  trusts  within  the  law  than  such  lawyers  as 
the  voters  can  afford  to  elect  to  Congress  to  frame 
new  anti-trust  laws.  The  laws  against  the  trusts  are 
of  no  more  practical  use  than  the  laws  in  favor  of 
the  unions." 

Luke  returned  to  Forbes  with  this  dictum. 

"  Can't  we  get  some  of  the  outside  firms  to  join 
us?  "  asked  Luke. 

Forbes  did  not  approve  the  idea. 

"  I  have  had  several  offers  of  the  kind,"  he  said, 
"  and  I  am  suspicious  of  them.  I  think  the  firms  that 
made  them  weren't  really  independent.  I  think  it  was 
a  move  to  let  the  trust  into  our  concern.  Besides,  this 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  255 

house  has  always  been  a  Forbes  house,  and  it  must 
remain  that  or  go  down  honorably." 

"  There'll  be  trouble,"  Luke  prophesied. 

"I  think  I  know  something  about  the  trade," 
Forbes  said:  he  had  moments  when  he  did  not  wholly 
like  the  superior  ability  shown  by  Luke  in  securing 
the  Ruysdael  loan.  "  This  is  my  part  of  the  Busi 


ness." 


Luke  was  too  much  occupied  by  the  political  cam 
paign  not  to  acknowledge  that,  weak  or  strong, 
Forbes  must  be  left  in  control  of  the  firm.  The  battle 
for  votes  was  four-cornered  without  being  square; 
it  was  hot  and  bitter.  On  the  issue  of  the  district- 
attorneyship,  the  Democrats  and  Progressives  were 
helping  Leighton  and  the  Republicans  by  directing 
all  their  energies  against  Luke  and  the  Municipal  Re 
form  League.  They  raised  high  the  accusation  of 
demagogism  and  appealed  to  business  large  and  small 
to  rescue  credit  from  the  hurts  that  Huber  threatened. 
Leighton,  supported  by  the  full  strength  of  his  or 
ganization,  was  pretending  that  Luke's  disaffection 
was  that  of  a  discharged  servant;  the  District- Attor 
ney  pleaded  for  a  safe  and  sane  conduct  of  the  office 
of  the  public  prosecutor. 

Although  the  League's  lesser  workers  undertook 
the  task  of  canvassing  the  city,  treating  with  politi 
cians  and  employers,  advertising,  arguing,  pleading, 


256  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

promising,  and  threatening,  doing  all  the  mysterious 
multitude  of  things  that  are  necessary  to  practical 
politics;  although,  too,  the  other  candidates  and  the 
volunteer  and  hired  speakers  performed  heavy  shares 
of  the  speech-making  from  cart-ends  and  stages,  on 
street  and  in  hall,  Luke  was  constantly  being  called 
on  to  help  his  associates  and  had  more  than  enough  in 
his  own  department  to  keep  him  busy  from  the  time 
when  he  got  out  of  bed  of  a  morning  until,  often  the 
next  morning,  he  got  in  again. 

By  telegraph,  telephone,  motor-car,  and  messenger, 
he  had  to  be  in  perpetual  touch  with  every  election- 
precinct  in  the  city  and  with  every  important  Leaguer 
in  every  precinct.  He  had  to  answer  hundreds  of  let 
ters,  see  hundreds  of  callers,  give  out  scores  of  inter 
views,  compose  and  deliver  from  three  to  a  dozen 
speeches  a  day  to  as  many  different  sorts  of  audi 
ences.  There  was  nothing  considered  too  small  to 
merit  his  attention,  nothing  too  large  to  be  beyond 
his  watchfulness.  Once  every  day  he  was  in  each 
quarter  of  New  York,  and  he  was  nowhere  for  more 
than  half  an  hour  at  a  time. 

Only  his  elaborately  acquired  calm  and  his  in 
herited  strength  of  constitution  saved  him  from  nerv 
ous  breakdown.  Except  for  them,  his  burning  sin 
cerity,  his  zeal,  and  the  endless  calls  made  upon  these 
characteristics,  would  have  driven  him  to  a  hospital. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  257 

Even  so,  his  body  grew  leaner  and  his  face  deeply 
lined.  He  was  fighting  with  every  ounce  of  muscle 
and  every  particle  of  brain. 

For  now,  as  in  every  alley  and  at  every  turning,  his 
political  progress  revealed  some  new  though  ever 
partial  phase  of  the  power  he  attacked,  Luke  saw  all 
that  he  hated  centered  in  one  figure,  originated  by  one 
mind.  He  individualized  Evil.  That  entire  mesh- 
work  of  wrong  which  he  was  trying  to  tear  into 
shreds,  he  traced  directly  to  the  plump,  pale  man  in 
russet  brown,  the  malignant  thing  with  the  hairy 
hands  and  beady  eyes,  the  creature  that  he  had  once 
seen  crouched  at  the  end  of  a  mahogany  table  in  a 
Wall  Street  skyscraper,  from  the  windows  of  which 
the  maze  of  streets  resembled  the  strands  of  a  web 
with  men  and  women  struggling  on  them  like  en 
tangled  flies. 

Of  all  the  fine  and  fatal  threads  that  were  snaring 
alike  the  helpless  and  the  strong,  what  threads  were 
not  spun  by  him?  Of  all  the  corruption  that  was 
poisoning  the  country  and  infecting  the  ideals  of  the 
Republic,  what  was  there  that  did  not  proceed  from 
his  fangs?  Luke  seemed  to  see  it  all  now — was  cer 
tain  that  he  saw  it — with  awful  clarity.  The  Rollins 
letters,  the  interview  in  Wall  Street,  the  action  of 
the  banks,  and  Osserman's  hint  from  the  City  Cham 
berlain,  the  part  played  by  the  street-girl,  the  raid 


25 8  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

by  the  police,  the  talks  with  Stein  and  the  daily 
partial  liftings  of  the  political  curtain:  these,  re 
viewed  in  the  lurid  glow  of  the  campaign,  confirmed 
the  accumulated  gossip  of  years,  corroborated  every 
wild  story  that  came  to  him  on  the  teeming  battle 
field:  of  bribery  and  thieving,  of  perjury  and  murder, 
of  all  the  crimes  that  men  have  known,  each  com 
mitted  again  and  again  and  again — safely  committed 
in  the  dark,  cravenly  done  under  the  protection  of 
bought-and-paid-for  law. 

What  mattered  now  this  power's  culture?  What 
mattered  its  benefactions,  its  colleges  for  the  igno 
rant,  its  hospitals  for  the  ill?  As  Luke  saw  them 
now,  these  were  only  dust  for  the  eyes  of  the  public, 
cheap  peace-offerings  for  intricate  wrongs.  The  good 
could  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  the  hand,  the  evil 
was  as  the  sands  of  the  sea. 

It  was  everywhere.  It  mocked  religion,  because 
It  supported  churches;  It  debauched  Government,  be 
cause  It  governed  the  governors;  It  destroyed  Law, 
because  It  controlled  the  Law's  administrators.  It 
was  master  of  the  means  of  production  and  distribu 
tion;  It  owned  the  storehouses  of  wealth;  the  clothes 
upon  the  backs  of  the  people,  the  houses  that  they 
lived  in;  the  meat  on  the  tables  of  the  rich,  the  bread 
in  the  bellies  of  the  poor.  It  secured  Its  own  prices 
for  them,  and  withheld  them  as  It  chose-  Directly  or 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  259 

indirectly,  the  whole  nation  took  Its  wages — such 
wages  as  It  chose  to  pay. 

At  the  great  League  meeting  in  Cooper  Union, 
Luke,  fronting  a  wilderness  of  faces,  shouted  his 
defiance  of  this  Power.  He  said  no  name,  but  none 
that  heard  him  could  doubt  whom  he  meant.  For 
that  night,  Luke  Huberts  friends  no  longer  knew 
the  languid  young  lawyer  in  this  shouting,  quivering, 
torch-bearing  evangel  on  the  historic  Cooper  Union 
Stage.  The  boy  had  died  that,  bound  for  New 
York,  thought  himself  as  a  Templar  entering  Jeru 
salem,  but  from  his  ashes  there  rose  a  new  Peter  the 
Hermit  preaching  a  new  crusade. 

"  If  we  had  the  eyes  to  see,"  he  said,  "  we'd  know 
that  from  this  city,  the  center  of  our  civilization, 
slender  threads,  so  numerous  as  to  be  beyond  our 
counting,  run  out  to  every  corner  of  the  land. 
Slender  threads:  the  merest  gossamer,  but  so  tough 
that,  once  entangled  in  them,  no  man  escapes.  No 
man,  no  woman,  and  no  child.  The  delicate  filaments 
catch  and  hold  us  by  the  thousand  every  day.  They 
catch  us  at  our  birth  and  they  hold  us  till  our  death : 
life-prisoners  even  when  we  are  unaware  of  it,  more 
desperately  prisoners  when  we  are  unaware  of  it. 
The  good  and  the  bad  and  the  hopelessly  neither- 
good-nor-bad;  efficient  and  inefficient,  every  sort  and 
condition,  men  and  boys,  women  and  girls — the  net 


260  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

has  use  for  us  all:  for  the  labor  of  the  child,  the  body 
of  the  woman,  the  hand  or  the  brain,  the  money  or  the 
muscles,  of  the  man.  It  has  uses  for  our  virtues  and 
more  use  for  our  vices.  All  are  needed,  none  that  is 
caught  goes  free.  If  we  had  the  eyes  to  see,  we 
should  see  it;  but  the  strands  are  as  fine  as  they  are 
tough,  and  only  when  a  victim  has  so  much  blood  in 
him  that  his  dying  struggles  ensanguine  the  thread 
that  holds  him  do  we,  noting  his  blood,  note  what  has 
received  his  blood — and  even  there,  we  rarely  con 
sider  that  thread  in  relation  to  its  fellows,  hardly 
ever  realize  that  it  is  part  of  a  plan,  hardly  ever 
trace  it  to  its  center." 

Luke  followed  the  Power  along  thread  after 
thread  through  the  labyrinth  of  American  life,  and 
he  made  it  clear  that  the  Power  was  one  man.  He 
pictured  the  stock-market,  where  the  trade  in  traitors 
began  and  where  the  fortunes  of  speculators  and  the 
riches  of  the  country  were  counters  in  the  game  of 
roulette  that  this  Power  conducted  with  a  braced 
wheel.  He  passed  on,  across  the  map  of  the  Union, 
through  the  wrecks  of  industries  that  this  Power  had 
razed.  He  showed  how  it  had  ruined  numberless 
houses  and  spoiled  countless  lives.  He  pointed  to  the 
bloated  bodies  of  the  suicides  it  had  flung  into  rivers 
it  had  never  seen,  the  graves  it  had  filled  in  the  pot 
ters'  fields  of  distant  towns,  the  twisted  limbs  of  chil- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  261 

dren  it  had  enslaved,  the  bodies  of  women  it  had 
forced  into  the  arms  of  lust,  the  muscles  of  men  it 
had  condemned  to  lifelong  servitude.  He  described 
its  command  over  Congress,  legislatures,  and  judges; 
its  collar  around  the  necks  of  the  police,  who  brought 
to  its  service,  in  return  for  criminal  immunity,  gam 
blers,  thieves,  highwaymen,  tramps,  prostitutes,  and 
pimps.  He  clutched  its  hairy  hand  in  the  ballot-box, 
and  called  upon  his  hearers  to  end  this  Power's  prac 
tices  as  they  loved  their  souls. 

Luke  pledged  himself,  if  elected,  to  drive  the  thing 
out  of  every  department  of  the  city's  life  that  the 
District-Attorney  could  in  any  way  influence.  He 
pledged  himself  to  fear  no  man  and  to  serve 
none. 

"You  have  the  eyes!"  he  shouted.  "If  you'll 
only  use  them,  you  have  the  eyes  to  see.  Look  about 
you,  and  what  you  see  will  give  you  the  strength  you 
need.  This  thing  thwarts  and  perverts  the  purposes 
of  Government,  and  you  know  it !  The  men  that  are 
pledged  to  the  people,  it  buys  with  gold.  These  are 
its  crimes,  but  not  the  worst  of  its  crimes.  The  worst 
it  does  is  not  what  it  does  to  things  material.  The 
worst  it  does  is  what  it  does  to  things  spiritual.  The 
spoiling  of  high  aims,  the  rape  and  ravage  of  hon 
orable  purposes:  these  are  its  sins  against  the  Holy 
Ghost!" 


262  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

§  2.  Betty  had  gone  to  the  mass-meeting,  and  so 
had  the  Rev.  Pinkney  Nicholson.  Even  in  the  rush 
of  his  campaign,  Luke  had  found  time  to  see  Betty 
every  day,  and,  because  the  Ruysdael  loan  had  re 
solved  all  her  doubts,  she  was  his  most  ardent  sup 
porter.  He  sent  her  two  stage-tickets  to  the  gather 
ing  at  Cooper  Union,  one  of  which  he  hoped  that 
her  father  would  use;  but  Forbes  was  busy  with  plans 
to  meet  the  competition  of  the  clothing  trust  and  to 
quiet  the  grumblings  of  his  employees,  who  wanted  a 
raise  of  wages  to  the  sums  paid  by  his  rivals,  and  so 
was  kept  late  at  the  offices  of  the  firm.  Betty,  there 
fore,  brought  Nicholson  with  her,  and  Nicholson, 
thinking  that  it  would  not  be  wise  for  a  clergyman  to 
seem  to  give  the  sanction  of  the  Church  to  any  party 
in  a  political  fight,  had  taken  her  not  to  the  stage, 
but  to  the  body  of  the  auditorium. 

The  girl  listened  to  Luke's  speech  with  parted  lips 
and  flushed  face.  She  was  inspired  by  her  lover's 
every  word  and  proud  for  each  interruption  of  ap 
plause.  She  was  so  inspired  and  so  proud  that  she 
did  not  notice  the  increasing  frigidity  of  her  com 
panion. 

"  Isn't  he  wonderful?  "  she  demanded  of  Nichol 
son  as  the  meeting  ended  with  the  entire  audience  on 
its  feet. 

The  band  was  playing  "  The  Star-Spangled  Ban- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  263 

ner,"  and  it  had  been  hoped  that  the  crowd  would 
sing  that  national  anthem.  Most  of  the  people  pres 
ent  did  not,  however,  know  the  words,  and  those  who 
did  know  them  had  voices  of  too  slight  a  range  to 
accede  to  the  severe  demands  of  the  music. 

"  Isn't  he  just  wonderful?  "  repeated  Betty.  She 
caught  Nicholson's  arm.  "  He  reminds  me  of  a 
French  orator  father  and  I  once  heard  in  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies  in  Paris.  You  must  take  me  up  to  the 
stage  to  tell  him  so." 

Nicholson  had  listened  with  mixed  emotions.  His 
attention,  moreover,  was  loose  because  he  had  lately 
been  much  worried  by  the  presence  of  a  heavy  debt 
on  his  church. 

"  I  think  he  is  an  excellent  speaker,"  said  Nichol 
son,  "but  I'm  afraid  I  don't  approve  of  his  tone." 

"His  tone?"  Betty  turned  sharply.  "What's 
the  matter  with  his  tone?  " 

Nicholson's  ascetic  face  relaxed.     He  quoted: 

"Too  rash,  too  unadvis'd,  too  sudden; 
Too  like  the  lightning." 

"He  isn't  rash;  he's  brave,"  said  Betty.  "And 
he  isn't  unadvised  or  sudden,  for  he  has  been  thinking 
of  all  these  things  for  a  long  time.  But  he  is  like  the 
lightning,  and  these  people  he  says  are  so  wrong 
will  find  that  out." 


264  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

§3.  Mr.  Irwin  was  at  the  mass-meeting,  too;  he 
of  the  gray  Vandyck  beard  and  pink  cheeks  and 
twinkling  eyes,  the  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Stein, 
Falconridge,  Falconridge  &  Perry,  whose  name  did 
not  appear  on  the  firm's  letter-heads. 

Irwin  left  Cooper  Union  directly  the  chief  speech 
of  the  evening  ended.  He  had  been  seated  in  an  unos 
tentatious  corner  high  in  air  and  close  beneath  the 
roof.  The  people  about  him  must  have  thought  him 
a  warm  admirer  of  the  speaker,  since  he  was  so  busy 
taking  notes  of  what  was  said  that  he  had  leisure 
for  only  the  most  perfunctory  applause.  Irwin  hur 
ried  down  the  Bowery.  He  went  into  the  nearest 
public  telephone  booth,  arid  from  it  he  called  up  the 
hotel  in  which  ex- Judge  Stein  made  his  home. 

§  4.  Ex- Judge  Stein  had  himself  experienced  a  try 
ing  day,  and  Irwin  was  absent  from  the  office,  or  he 
would  have  known  it.  Somebody,  it  seemed,  had 
asked  embarrassing  questions  of  George  J.  Hallett 
and  issued  exacting  orders  to  Hallett,  who  had  passed 
on  the  embarrassing  questions  and  the  exacting  or 
ders  to  Stein.  The  questions  and  the  orders  gained 
in  intensity  by  transmission,  and  Stein  was  upset. 

"  Yes,  yes,  this  is  Judge  Stein,"  he  answered  into 
the  black  transmitter  of  the  telephone  when  Irwin 
called  him.  "  Who's  talking,  please?  " 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  2651 

"  Irwin." 

"Eh?  Well,  where  have  you  been,  Mr.  Irwin? 
I  have  wanted  you  to-day  on  some  important  busi 
ness." 

"  I  think  I  have  been  attending  to  it,  Judge." 

"  Where  have  you  been?  " 

"  Several  places.  To-night  I've  been  to  that  mass- 
meeting  in  Cooper  Union." 

"  Yes.    Was  there  much  enthusiasm?  " 

"  A  great  deal." 

"  Spontaneous  ?    Genuine  ?  " 

"  Partly." 

"  And  the  tone  of  the  speech?  " 

Mr.  Irwin  went  at  some  length  into  that  side  of 
the  subject.  He  read  excerpts  from  his  notes.  It 
was  evident  that,  since  the  afternoon  when  his  senior 
partner  had  first  discussed  Huber  with  him,  necessity 
had  forced  a  greater  degree  of  confidence. 

The  present  conversation  continued  for  several 
minutes.  No  eavesdropper,  unless  previously  ac 
quainted  with  the  facts  of  the  case,  could  have  gath 
ered  much  from  it,  but  it  was  intelligent  and  signifi 
cant  to  the  principals.  At  its  end,  Stein  said : 

'*  There  is  very  little  time  left  us,  and  this  young 
man  means  us  to  understand  that  he  will  keep  his 
word.  The  people  for  whom  we  are  acting  are 
rather  importunate,  Mr.  Irwin.  They  are  not  satis- 


266  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

fied;  not  at  all  satisfied;  and  I've  already  had  to  ex 
tend  to  you  the  time-limit  I  first  gave  you.  I  have 
received  instructions  to  the  effect  that  we  must  act  at 
once." 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"You  understand?" 

"  I  understand." 

"  At  once." 

"  All  right,  Judge." 

"  That  had  better  mean  to-night." 

"  I'll  do  my  best." 

"  I  think  you  had  better,  Mr.  Irwin.  I  shaVt  be 
going  to  bed  for  two  or  three  hours  yet." 

§  5.  Irwin  left  the  telephone  and  hailed  the  first 
taxicab  that  passed.  It  was  free,  and  he  had  himself 
driven  to  a  political  club  with  quarters  not  far  from 
the  office  of  Anson  Quirk. 

The  quarters  were  over  a  saloon  in  Second  Avenue. 
The  entrance  was  a  hallway  and  a  stairway  back  of 
the  saloon.  Here  Irwin  rang  a  bell,  which  was  im 
mediately  answered  by  a  man  in  his  shirt-sleeves. 

"  Mr.  Quirk  upstairs?  " 

"  No,"  said  the  man.  He  eyed  the  questioner  sul 
lenly  in  the  twilight  of  the  hall.  "  I  don't  think  he 
is,"  he  added. 

Irwin  took  a  card  from  his  pocket.    He  placed  it 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  267 

in  a  blank  envelope,  sealed  the  envelope,  and  handed 
it  to  the  doorkeeper. 

"  Give  him  this,"  he  said,  and  stepped  back  into 
the  street  to  wait. 

The  man  closed  the  door  upon  him.  It  was  pres 
ently  reopened  by  Quirk,  his  round  face  smiling,  his 
manner  jovial. 

"  Hello,"  said  Quirk.  "  It's  time  good  little  boys 
were  in  bed,  but  I'm  glad  to  see  you,  anyhow.  Come 
in  and  have  a  drink." 

"  No,  thank  you,"  Irwin  replied.  "  I'll  be  back 
here  in  two  hours.  There's  something  you've  got 
to  do  in  the  meantime." 

"Me?    Now?" 

"  You ;  right  away.  We've  been  too  slow  about 
that  little  business,  Quirk.  We  can't  stand  them  off 
much  longer.  There's  not  much  more  time  for  delay, 
and  the  people  higher  up  want  to  be  shown  action." 

"Want  to  see  the  goods,  do  they ?"  chuckled 
Quirk.  He  rattled  some  coins  in  the  pocket  under 
his  round  abdomen. 

"Yes." 

"  Well,  what  do  they  want  me  to  do?  " 

"  Show  the  goods,  I  guess." 

"Any  suggestions?" 

"  No,  that's  up  to  you." 

"  I'm  on,"  said  Quirk.    "  Come  back  in  two  hours. 


268  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

I'll  run  right  upstairs  and  get  my  hat.  An'  here,  If 
you  won't  take  a  drink,  have  a  cigar:  it's  a  long  wait. 
See  you  later." 

§  6.  The  great  bulk  of  Police  Lieutenant  Donovan 
was  hunched  up  in  an  upholstered  armchair  beside 
the  table  in  his  private  office  when  Quirk  entered. 
He  looked  as  if  his  caller  was  not  welcome. 

"  Nothin'  doin'  so  far,"  he  said. 

Quirk,  too,  was  serious. 

"  I  know  it,"  said  he.  "  They  fell  down  so  hard 
in  that  raid  scheme  that  they  must  have  had  all  the 
sense  knocked  out  of  them.  Well,  you've  got  to  put 


some  in." 


Donovan's  growl  was  wordless. 

"  You've  got  to,"  said  Quirk.     "  To-night." 

"  To-night?"  Donovan  stood  up.  "What  in 
hell  do  you  think  I  am?  " 

The  lawyer  leaned  across  the  table. 

"  I  think  you're  a  bluff,"  he  said. 

"Do  you?  Well,  I'd  just  like  you  to  have  my 
job." 

"  Donovan,"  said  Quirk,  "  if  you  don't  put  this 
thing  across,  an'  do  it  soon,  somebody'll  have  your 
job  sooner  than  you  think." 

"What's  that?"  thundered  the  lieutenant.  But 
before  a  reply  was  possible,  his  tone  changed;  his 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  269 

hands  thrust  deep  in  his  pockets,  he  turned  away,  his 
shoulders  drooping.  u  Oh,  I  know  you've  got  the 
evidence  to  use  for  an  excuse,"  he  said:  "I  know 
you  could  do  it,  an'  I  know  you  would." 

"  I  wouldn't  do  it  if  I  didn't  have  to,"  said  Quirk 
gently;  "  but  you  know  how  I'm  fixed  myself.  Don't 
take  it  so  hard,  Hughie.  You  can  pull  this  thing 
across,  if  you'll  only  try.  I'm  sorry,  but  if  I  haven't 
something  to  show  pretty  soon,  I'll  get  it  in  the  neck 
—hard,  I  will." 

Donovan  walked  to  the  door  of  the  rollroom.  He 
opened  it. 

"  Say,  one  o'  you  fellows,"  he  called  to  a  group 
of  officers  in  plain  clothes.  "  Go  out  an'  find  Guth 
an'  tell  him  to  come  in  here  right  away.  I  want 
him."  Then  he  turned  to  Quirk:  "It's  got  to  be 
to-night?" 

Quirk  nodded: 

"  Make  it  an  hour  and  a  half  if  you  can." 

41  Well,  I  can't." 

"  Then  as  near  as  you  can." 

"  Gee,"  said  Donovan,  "  I  certainly  am  sick  of  this 
whole  business!  Well — come  back  in  an  hour  an' 
forty-five  minutes  an'  we'll  see  what's  doin'." 

§  7.  He  greeted  Guth  with  a  roar. 

"  You're  a  hell  of  a  cop,  you  are !    What  sort  of 


270  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

a  job  do  you  think  youVe  got,  anyway?  Rag- 
pickin'?" 

Guth,  who  was  used  to  these  rages,  stood  at  atten 
tion.  The  scar  from  his  mouth  to  the  corner  of  his 
jaw-bone  twitched  heavily. 

"  I  done  all  I  could,  Lieutenant,"  he  said. 

"  You're  a  liar!  "  said  Donovan.  "  You've  been 
on  this  job  Gawd  knows  how  long,  an'  your  foot's 
slipped  twice.  All  you've  found  is  that  he  hasn't 
got  any  safety-deposit  box.  You  know  he  must  have 
the  goods  at  his  office,  an'  you're  afraid  to  get 
'em." 

"  They  might  be  at  his  apartment  house,"  said 
Guth.  He  shifted  his  feet  uneasily. 

"  They  might  be,  but  they  ain't.  I  had  Anderson 
play  that  end  of  it.  What  d'you  mean  lettin'  Reddy 
Rawn  t'row  you  down  this  way?  " 

"  He  ain't  t'rowed  me  down.    He  wouldn't  dare." 

"Wouldn't  he?  Well,  then,  he's  stallin'  you  all 
right,  all  right,  an'  he's  had  a  cinch  doin'  it.  This 
thing's  got  to  stop.  I  got  to  have  them  letters  right 
off.  To-night.  Now.  Get  that? " 

The  giant  subordinate  gnawed  his  upper  lip. 

"  That's  goin'  some,  Lieutenant,"  he  said. 

"  If  you  don't  do  it,  you'll  be  goin'  more :  you'll 
be  goin'  off  the  force.  Now  then :  you  beat  it.  Get 
Reddy  on  the  job.  Tell  him  Mitchell  knows  the 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  271 

officer  on  that  beat  an'  '11  see  he  an'  his  friends  ain't 
interfered  with.  Nobody'll  be  in  the  offices  to-night; 
they've  all  been  over  to  Cooper  Union  an'  '11  be  tired 
out.  Reddy'll  be  as  safe  as  if  he  was  at  home  in  bed. 
He'd  better  have  the  Kid  to  help  him."  Donovan 
banged  the  table  with  his  fist.  "  I  want  you  back 
here  in  an  hour  with  everything  that's  inside  that 
fellow  Huber's  safe.  See?" 

§  8.  In  that  shadowy  alley  near  Forty-third  Street 
and  Third  Avenue,  where  he  had  talked  to  Reddy 
Rawn  before,  Patrolman  Guth  talked  now  with 
Reddy  Rawn  and  the  Kid. 

"  It  ain't  my  fault,"  he  said.  "  I've  stood  him  off 
as  long  as  I  could.  You  gotta  do  it  now,  an'  if  you 
don't  he'll  have  you  two  up  for  Crab  Rotello's  as 
sault.  I  know  it.  He  means  business  this  time.  You 
can  crack  a  safe,  Kid,  can't  you?  " 

§  9.  On  the  stage  at  Cooper  Union,  Luke  was 
holding  an  impromptu  reception.  Hundreds  of  peo 
ple  were  streaming  by  him  and  shaking  his  hand.  His 
arm  ached,  but  he  was  proud  and  glad. 

At  the  end  of  the  stream  came  Betty  and  Nichol 
son.  Luke  saw  the  girl  long  before  she  could  reach 
him,  and  he  smiled  to  her  over  the  heads  of  the 
crowd. 


272  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"You  dear!"  she  whispered  when,  at  last,  her 
hand  caught  his.  "  I'm  proud  of  you.  I'm  so 
proud!" 

He  pressed  her  hand. 

"  That's  the  best  praise  of  all,"  he  said,  and  to 
her  companion:  "  I'm  glad  you're  here,  Mr.  Nichol 


son." 


Nicholson  shook  hands. 

"  I  was  glad  to  be  here.  I  admired  your  delivery 
even  where  I  disapproved  of  your  treatment." 

"What?"  laughed  Luke.  "Is  the  church  go 
ing  to  make  friends  with  the  mammon  of  unrighteous 
ness?  "  He  was  hoarse  and  hot  and  nervous,  but  he 
was  too  warmly  aglow  with  his  success  to  heed  seri 
ously  the  reply  that  Nicholson  was  beginning  when 
one  of  his  friends  on  the  stage  plucked  his  sleeve. 
He  turned.  "  What  is  it?  "  he  asked. 

"  Nelson  wants  to  see  you.  I  don't  know  what 
about,  but  he  says  it's  very  important." 

"All  right."  Luke  faced  Betty  and  Nicholson 
again.  "  You'll  forgive  me  for  just  a  moment,  won't 
you?"  he  said.  "I'll  be  right  back,  and  then,  if 
you'll  let  me,  I'll  drive  over  to  Brooklyn  with  you 
both.  I  have  a  note  from  your  father,  Betty,  asking 
me  to  come  to  the  house." 

"I  thought  he  was  at  the  office,"  said  Betty;  "  but 
I  do  hope  you'll  come  with  us." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  273 

"  He's  back  at  the  house  now.  This  note  came  by 
messenger." 

"  Then,"  said  Nicholson,  "  I  shan't  interfere  with 
business.  I'll  go  home  from  here.  Run  along,  Mr. 
Huber.  I'll  guard  Miss  Forbes  while  you're  gone." 

Luke  followed  the  man  that  had  sought  him  and 
found  Nelson  standing  at  the  farthest  corner  of  the 
stage. 

The  wholesale  druggist  was  in  evident  distress. 
He  was  an  honorable  man  and  a  practical,  and  these 
qualities  spoke  in  the  lines  of  his  troubled  face.  As 
soon  as  they  were  left  together,  Nelson  came  to  the 
point. 

"  Huber,"  he  said,  "  I've  got  to  get  out." 

"Out?    What  of?" 

"  The  League.     I've  got  to  leave  it." 

Nelson  was  almost  the  last  man  that  Luke  would 
have  expected  to  desert.  Moreover,  he  had  so  long 
been  prominent  in  the  reform  movement  that  his  de 
fection  would  be  a  serious  blow  to  the  League.  Luke 
had  to  call  loudly  on  his  lethargic  manner  to  conceal 
his  anxiety  and  surprise. 

"  Why?  "  he  inquired.     "  What's  wrong?  " 

'*  This  speech  of  yours  to-night,"  explained  Nel 
son.  "  You've  been  getting  nearer  and  nearer  that 
fellow  all  along,  but  I'd  no  idea  you  meant  to  go 
right  at  him." 


274  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  What  was  the  matter  with  the  speech?  I  didn't 
tell  anything  but  the  truth." 

"  No,  I  dare  say  you  didn't,  but  I  can't  honorably 
stand  by  you,  Huber,  now  that  you've  openly  taken 
this  line." 

Nelson  swallowed  hard.  It  was  plain  that  he  did 
not  like  the  dish  prepared  for  him. 

"  I  don't  understand,"  said  Luke.  "  If  it  was  true, 
and  if  we're  to  make  a  real  fight  for  real  reform, 
we've  got  to  begin  at  the  cause  of  corruption." 

"  I  know.  I  admit  it  was  the  truth,  but  it  wasn't 
the  whole  truth.  He  does  lots  of  good." 

"  Good  and  bad  are  relative.  Relatively  he  does 
n't  do  any  good." 

"  I'm  not  so  sure  of  that." 

"lam." 

"  Yes,  but  there's  the  League  to  think  of." 

"  The  League  nominated  me." 

"  Of  course  it  did,  but  you're  not  the  whole  ticket 
nor  the  whole  movement." 

This  was  a  detail  that  Luke  in  his  triumph  had 
forgotten. 

"  Still,"  he  said,  "  we  can't  dodge  the  facts.  I 
won't  dodge  them,  Nelson." 

"  I  understand,"  Nelson  said.  "  Perhaps  you're 
right.  Anyhow,  right  or  wrong,  you've  done  what 
you've  done,  and  so  I've  got  to  go." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  275 

"But  why?" 

Nelson  fidgeted. 

u  I  may  as  well  tell  you,"  he  at  last  said.  "  You 
know  my  business  has  always  been  one  that  didn't 
cross  these  fellows'  trail.  But  lately  they've  been 
coming  toward  us.  I  think  I  mentioned  that?  " 

Luke  nodded. 

"  Well,  I've  been  hard  up.  The  other  day  I 
needed  money  badly.  I  had  to  have  money  or  I'd 
have  failed.  I  have  a  wife  and  family  to  think  of, 
Huber.  I  tried  everywhere  to  raise  the  wind,  and 
there  was  only  one  place  where  I  could  raise 
it." 

"  You  mean — "  Luke  wet  his  lips.  "  You  mean 
that  crowd?" 

"  Yes." 

"  It  came  from  him?" 

"  It  came  direct  from  L.  Bergen  Rivingtoa.  But, 
of  course,  it  really  came  from  him" 

Luke  put  out  his  hand.    Nelson  wrung  it. 

"  I  wasn't  bought,  Huber,"  he  said.  "  You  don't 
think  that?" 

"  I  know,"  said  Luke  kindly. 

"  I  wish  I'd  told  you  sooner,  Huber.  I  didn't 
expect  you'd  go  so  far." 

"  I'd  have  gone  just  as  far,  Nelson.    I'm  sorry." 

"  I'm  sorry,  too,  Huber.     Good-night." 


276  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

§  10.  "  Betty,"  said  Luke,  as  the  girl  nestled 
against  him  in  the  darkness  of  the  cab  that  drove 
them  toward  her  home,  "  this  is  going  to  be  a  hard 
battle." 

"  Then  you'll  win  because  you're  right." 

"  I'm  not  so  sure." 

Her  arms  went  round  his  neck. 

"  I  don't  care  whether  you  win  or  not,"  she  whis 
pered,  "  so  long  as  you  ought  to  win." 

§  ii.  Forbes  was  waiting  for  them  in  the  library. 
His  rapidly-graying  hair  was  disordered,  and  his 
face  was  even  more  worried  than  Nelson's  had 
been. 

"  You'd  better  run  to  bed,  dear,"  he  said  to  Betty 
as  he  kissed  her.  "  It's  late,  and  I've  some  heavy 
business  to  talk  about  to  Luke." 

"  I'm  wide  awake,"  protested  Betty.  "  I  couldn't 
sleep  if  I  did  go  to  bed.  I'll  sleep  late  to-morrow." 

"  But  then  there  is  the  business  we  must  talk 
about." 

"  I  don't  care.  I'll  like  it.  I  won't  interrupt." 
She  looked  at  Luke.  "  May  I  stay?  "  she  asked. 

Luke  smiled. 

"  I  wish  you  would,"  he  said. 

Forbes  made  a  gesture  of  surrender. 

"  All  right,"  said  he.    He  turned  to  Luke  and,  a* 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  277 

Betty  seated  herself  between  the  two  men,  who  re 
mained  standing,  he  continued :  "  They're  going  to 
strike." 

"At  the  factory?"  Luke  had  feared  this. 
"What  do  they  want?" 

"  They  want  us  to  meet  the  hours  and  the  wages 
that  the  trust  is  giving." 

"  We  can  meet  them  as  to  hours,  can't  we?  " 

"  We  might.    It  would  hurt  us,  but  we  might." 

"  But  not  the  wages?" 

"  Not  in  five  years." 

Luke  lit  a  cigarette.  He  noted  that  his  hand 
was  steady,  and  its  steadiness  gratified  him. 

"  They're  well  enough  paid,  aren't  they?" 

"  You  know  the  scale." 

"Well,  it's  a  fair  one,  isn't  it?" 

"  What  does  that  matter  to  them  when  they  think 
they  can  get  more?" 

"  But  you  say  they  can't,  Forbes." 

"  I  can't  convince  them  of  it.  Their  attitude  is 
that  if  we  can't  pay  them  what  they  want,  the  Busi 
ness  had  better  go  out  of  existence." 

"  You  saw  the  men's  committee?  " 

"  This  evening.  That's  why  I  couldn't  come  to 
your  meeting." 

"  And  they  won't  compromise?  " 

*'  They  might  have,  but  things  have  gone  too  far. 


278  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

A  lot  of  these  I.  W.  W.  organizers  and  agitators 
have  been  at  work  among  them.  I  don't  know  what 
will  happen  to  the  Business  now." 

'  We  can  get  in  strike-breakers  and  run  the  fac 
tory  in  spite  of  them." 

"  If  we  do,  there'll  be  rioting.  They  might  burn 
the  building.  These  Industrial  Workers  of  the 
World — you  don't  know  them." 

"  I  don't  see  that  we  have  any  choice." 

Forbes  looked  away. 

"  We  have  one,"  he  muttered. 

Luke  caught  his  wrist. 

"  Look  here,"  he  demanded,  "  do  you  mean  to 
say  that  this  may  have  a  political  origin?  " 

"  I  believe  it  has.  I  believe  those  letters  you  told 
me  about " 

"  You  want  me  to  knuckle  under?  "  asked  Luke. 

Forbes  looked  at  him. 

"  Think  what  a  strike  might  do  to  you  politically," 
he  said. 

"  I  don't  care  about  that." 

"  Your  friends  might." 

"  Not  if  they  want  to  stay  my  friends.  Besides, 
it  can't  be  true.  The  writer  of  those  letters  hates  the 
I.  W.  W.  like  poison.  He  can't  have  inspired  them." 

"  Oh,  not  that.  I  know  he  can't.  But  if  you'd 
be  sensible  about  those  letters,  I  believe  he'd  be  will- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  279 

ing  to  put  down  the  trust's  wages  and  join  us  in  this 
fight" 

"What  did  you  tell  the  men's  committee?" 

"  I  didn't  show  them  what  I  felt,"  said  Forbes. 
"  That  would  never  do.  You  can't  tell  workmen 
what  you  really  think.  I  just  said  if  they  wanted  to 
strike,  they  would  have  to  strike." 

Luke  flung  aside  Forbes's  arm. 

"  Then  stick  to  that,"  he  said. 

"  But,  Huber " 

Luke  interrupted.     He  fronted  Betty. 

"  Betty,"  he  said,  "  do  you  understand  what  your 
father  is  asking  me  to  do?  You  know  how  I  am 
placed,  and  you  heard  my  speech  to-night.  Now, 
your  father  wants  me  to  go  back  on  all  that  in  order 
to  save  him  from  poverty  and  you  from  poverty  and 
me  from  poverty  and  defeat.  I  won't  do  it. 
Whether  you  like  it  or  not,  I  won't  do  it !  " 

The  girl  got  up  slowly  and  put  a  hand  on  his 
shoulder.  Her  eyes,  as  she  looked  from  one  man 
to  the  other,  were  very  beautiful,  but  they  were  firm. 

"  Father,"  she  said,  "  I've  learned  a  lot  lately. 
Luke's  right  and — and  I'm  with  him." 

Forbes  turned  toward  her  irritably. 

"Oh,  go  to  bed!"  said  he. 

Luke  laughed  and,  reaching  up,  patted  the  hand 
that  was  on  his  shoulder. 


28o  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  No,  no,"  he  protested,  "  you  mustn't  intrigue 
with  my  allies,  Forbes." 

"  Well,"  said  Forbes,  "  you'll  see  that  I'm  right 
if  you  keep  on  antagonizing  these  people." 

"  We  can  starve  them  out." 

"  Not  before  there  is  violence." 

"  The  law  will  defend  us  there.  We'll  have  the 
police:  they  can't  deny  us  adequate  protection  in 
such  a  matter — and  if  we  have  to,  we'll  get  the  Gov 
ernor  to  call  out  the  troops." 

Forbes  argued  and  pleaded  for  a  long  time,  but 
to  no  avail.  Luke  would  not  go  over  to  his  enemies : 
the  strike  must  proceed. 

"  I've  got  to  leave  you  now,"  he  said.  "  I'll  have 
to  have  a  statement  ready  about  this  for  the  papers 
first  thing  in  the  morning.  Perhaps  I'll  get  out  of 
the  Subway  at  Fourteenth  Street  and  open  up  the 
League's  headquarters  and  get  it  ready  there." 

It  was  Betty  that  stopped  this  plan. 

"  You'll  do  nothing  of  the  sort,"  she  ordered. 
"  You're  tired  out.  I  won't  let  you  kill  yourself." 
She  kissed  him  on  the  mouth.  "  You  must  prom 
ise  me  to  go  straight  to  the  Arapahoe  and  to 
sleep." 

At  the  touch  of  her  lips,  he  softened. 

"  All  right,"  he  promised,  "  but  I'm  no  more 
sleepy  now  than  you  said  you  were  an  hour  ago." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  281 

§  12.  Luke  would  not  have  had  to  open  the  offices 
of  the  Municipal  League;  that  was  being  attended 
to.  While  he  was  still  in  the  Subway  train  returning 
from  Brooklyn  to  Manhattan,  two  men,  one  of  them 
carrying  a  small  bundle,  crossed  Union  Square  and 
turned  down  Broadway.  Before  the  entrance  to  the 
building  in  which  the  League  was  housed,  they  paused 
to  speak  to  a  policeman. 

"  That's  all  right,"  he  told  them.  "  I  know.  I 
got  me  orders  ten  minutes  ago.  That's  why  I'm 
standin'  here.  But  get  a  move  on,  you  fellows.  I 
don't  want  to  stick  here  all  night." 

The  two  men  rounded  a  corner. 

In  the  deserted  street,  the  officer  of  the  law  walked 
up  and  down,  twenty  paces  to  the  north,  then  twenty 
to  the  south.  A  party  of  strayed  revelers  came  by 
and  tried  to  talk  with  him;  but  he  ordered  them  to 
move  on  if  they  didn't  want  him  to  arrest  them.  He 
resumed  his  walk  when  they  had  gone,  his  thumbs 
tucked  in  his  belt,  his  lips  pursed  and  whistling  softly 
a  popular  tune.  Once  he  heard  the  sound  of  a  win 
dow  opened  overhead.  A  little  later  he  saw  a  dim 
light  pass  from  one  window  to  another  in  the  build 
ing  above  him.  A  dulled  report  sounded  from  be 
hind  the  walls:  the  Elevated  is  not  near  Broadway 
at  this  spot,  but  in  the  night  noises  travel  far,  and 
this  noise  might  have  been  the  crash  of  a  late 


282  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

train.  The  officer  of  the  law  did  not  raise  his 
head.  .  .  . 

Around  the  corner  came  two  figures.  Both  of 
them  carried  bundles  now. 

The  officer  of  the  law  strolled  past  them.  He 
did  not  stop  as  he  spoke. 

"  All  right?  "he  asked. 

"  All  right,"  said  one  of  the  figures. 

The  officer  of  the  law  walked  on,  whistling  his 
popular  tune. 

§  13.  Somewhat  nearer  the  hour  of  sunrise,  Mr. 
Irwin,  his  merry  eyes  grown  weary,  stood  in  the 
sitting-room  of  the  Hon.  Marcus  Stein's  suite  of 
hotel  apartments.  He  was  bending  over  a  table  on 
which  lay  an  opened  bundle. 

Stein  was  bending  over  the  table,  too.  His  digni 
fied  demeanor  was  ruffled. 

4  This  is  nothing  but  a  collection  of  junk,"  he  was 
saying.  "  It  is  no  use  to  anybody  but  its  owners. 
Get  it  out  of  here  at  once,  Mr.  Irwin,  and  tell  your 
friends  to  return  it  to  the  place  they  got  it  from." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

§  i.  As  every  man  has  his  day  in  court,  so  nearly 
every  man  has  his  day  in  the  newspapers,  and  which 
is  the  more  trying  it  is  difficult  to  decide.  The  day 
following  the  night  of  the  Cooper  Union  meeting 
was  Luke's:  the  morning  papers  seemed  to  contain 
little  news  that  did  not  refer  to  him;  the  editorial 
columns  presented  satiric  paragraphs  and  serious 
leaders  regarding  his  speech  and  his  position  before 
the  public,  and  spread  over  the  first  pages  were  ac 
counts  of  his  address  and  stories  of  the  strike  in  the 
factory,  with  which  his  connection  was  now  loudly 
heralded. 

Comment  on  the  speech  was  about  equally  divided. 
Half  of  the  press  ridiculed  it  as  the  vaporing  of  a 
misinformed  dreamer,  and  half  denounced  it  as  an 
anarchistic  appeal  to  the  violence  of  the  mob.  Some 
journals  gave  stenographic  reports  of  the  entire  mat 
ter;  most  printed  only  those  portions  which,  lifted 
from  their  context,  were  best  suited  to  the  policy  of 
the  paper  using  them.  The  extremes  were  shown  by 
two  headlines.  One  read: 

283 


284  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

NIGHTMARES  OF  A  CANDIDATE 

Br'er  Huber  Consults  His  Dream-Book 

And  Says  Innocent  New  York  Is 

Being    Tortured    Without 

Knowing   It 

And  the  other  flung  across  eight  columns,  in  letters 
of  vermilion,  the  legend: 

CANDIDATE  PREACHES  PRIVATE  WAR 
WITH  FIRE  AND  SWORD! 

In  the  treatment  of  the  strike,  Luke  fared  even 
worse.  He  was  held  up  as  a  hypocrite  that  cham 
pioned  the  People  from  the  platform  and  sweated  the 
poor  in  the  shops.  He  was  paraded  as  the  real  owner 
of  R.  H.  Forbes  &  Son.  The  papers  generally  most 
bitter  against  labor  movements  published  long  ac 
counts  of  the  strike,  denunciatory  interviews  with  the 
strike-leaders,  and  tables  showing  how  badly  the 
wages  paid  by  the  Forbes  firm  compared  with  the 
wage-scale  already  in  operation  in  the  factories  con 
trolled  by  the  clothing-trust.  There  was  a  hurriedly 
drawn  cartoon  that  depicted  Luke  wearing  a  Liberty- 
cap  and  hurling  a  bomb  at  a  figure  labeled  "  Con 
servative  Business  " :  he  was  addressing  a  mob  from 
a  soap-box  that  was  supported  by  the  bowed  shoul 
ders  of  his  oppressed  employees.  The  most  respect 
able  newspaper  in  New  York  hinted  that  his  political 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  285 

attack  was  made  against  his  business  rivals  solely 
because  they  were  his  business  rivals,  and  the  least 
respectable  declared  that  his  quarrel  with  the  workers 
stamped  his  election  doctrines  as  the  gospel  of  Mur 
der  for  Profit. 

As  Luke  entered  the  door  of  the  Broadway  build 
ing  in  which  the  Municipal  Reform  League  had  its 
headquarters,  he  came  up  with  Venable  also  going 
in.  The  old  man's  hand  trembled  as  he  greeted 
the  candidate. 

"  We  seem  to  have  raised  a  real  thunderstorm," 
said  Luke,  smiling.  "  I  hope  it'll  clear  the  atmos- 
phere." 

"Then  you  know?"  asked  Venable.  "You've 
seen  it  in  the  papers?  " 

"How  could  I  help  it?"  said  Luke.  "It's  all 
over  them." 

"Oh,  the  speech?" 

"  That  and  this  strike  at  the  Forbes  factory,  yes." 

"  I  didn't  mean  those  things,"  said  Venable.  "  I 
meant  this." 

He  took  from  his  coat-pocket  a  folded  newspaper 
open  at  the  financial  and  real  estate  page.  He  pointed 
a  shaking  finger  at  first  one  and  then  another  obscure 
paragraph,  both  printed  in  small  type  and  far  sepa 
rated. 

Luke  read  the  paragraphs.     Each  applied  to  the 


286  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

same  block  of  an  uptown  street.  The  former  said 
that  a  new  branch  of  an  elevated  railroad  would 
be  run  through  this  street,  and  the  latter  curtly  an 
nounced  that  two  of  the  apartment  houses  in  the 
block  were  about  to  be  converted  into  tenements  for 
negroes. 

44  My  apartment  house,"  said  Venable  simply,  "  the 
one  that  all  my  money  is  invested  in,  will  have  those 
4  L  '-tracks  running  in  front  of  its  second-floor  win 
dows.  It  is  just  between  the  two  houses  that  are  to 
to  be  made  into  tenements." 

Luke  swore  softly. 

44  Who's  back  of  this?"  he  demanded. 

41  You  know  what  influences  control  that  elevated 
road,"  said  Venable. 

"And  the  tenements?" 

44  They've  just  been  bought  by  Hallett" 

"It's  ruin?" 

"It  will  be  very  close  to  it." 

Luke  gripped  Venable's  shoulder. 

44  You  get  out  of  this,"  he  commanded.  "  Leave 
the  League  and  go  to  them;  they'll  change  their 
plans:  that's  why  they've  made  their  plans  the  way 
they  have." 

44  No,"  said  Venable,  "  I  won't  do  it.  I  can't. 
I'm  pretty  old  to  be  poor,  but  I'm  too  old  to  change 
my  opinions." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  287 

He  was  still  talking  in  this  manner  when  they 
entered  the  League's  quarters  and  were  greeted  with 
the  news  that  burglars  had  been  there  the  night 
before. 

"  Nothin's  been  touched  in  any  of  the  offices  but 
yours,  Mr.  Huber,"  said  the  breathless  clerk  who 
poured  out  this  story  to  them;  "  but  there  the  safe's 
been  blown  open,  and  I  don't  know  what's  missin'.  I 
sent  for  the  police  right  away." 

"The  police?1'  said  Luke.  "Stop  your  joking, 
Charley." 

"  I'm  not  jokin',  Mr.  Huber.  I  did  send  for 
them.  They've  been  here.  They  said  they'd  have  a 
detective  over  from  headquarters  before  long." 

Luke  hurried  to  his  office.  Bits  of  charred 
blanket  and  several  match-ends  lay  about  the  floor. 
The  door  of  the  safe  swung  lamely  upon  a  single 
hinge.  Inside  was  a  tumbled  mass  of  papers.  Other 
wise  the  room  seemed  undisturbed. 

Quickly,  Luke  ran  over  the  papers  in  the  yawn 
ing  safe.  He  looked  up  at  Venable. 

"  Everything's  here,"  he  said. 

"Are  you  sure?"  asked  Venable. 

"  Quite."  Luke  went  to  his  desk.  Its  lock  had 
been  forced.  There  had  been  a  rude  attempt  to  re 
store  the  contents  to  the  order  in  which  Luke  had  left 
them  when  he  quitted  the  office  the  day  before,  but 


288  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

he  saw  at  once  that  everything  had  been  examined. 
"  And  they  didn't  get  anything  from  here,  either,"  he 
added. 

"  I  wonder  what  they  were  after?  "  said  Venable. 

"  So  do  I,"  said  Luke  acridly.  "  At  any  rate,  they 
didn't  get  it."  The  telephone  rang  as  he  bent  beside 
it.  He  took  the  receiver  from  its  hook.  "Yes?" 
he  said.  "  Oh,  Mr.  Venable?  Yes,  he's  here- 
right  :  he's  here  in  my  office,  I  say.  Want  to  talk  to 
him?"  He  held  up  the  receiver.  "It's  that  new 
worker,  Jarvie,"  he  explained.  u  He  wants  to  talk  to 
you." 

Rapidly  as  events  had  of  late  happened  to  Luke  and 
the  Municipal  Reform  League,  they  were  happening 
this  morning  with  a  speed  theretofore  unequaled. 
Venable  had  not  exchanged  a  dozen  sentences  over 
the  telephone  before  he  told  Jarvie  to  wait  a  minute 
and,  ringing  off,  faced  Luke,  with  his  cheeks  gone 
gray. 

"  This — this  is  the  worst  thing  yet !  "  he  gasped. 

Luke  was  leaning  against  the  desk,  his  hands  closed 
over  its  edge. 

"What  is?" 

"  This,  that  Jarvie  says.  It's—Oh !  "  Venable 
flung  up  his  hands.  "  It's  too  much !  " 

Luke's  grip  tightened. 

"  Tell  me  what  it  is." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  289 

Venable  crumpled  into  the  chair  before  the  tele 
phone. 

"  A  couple  of  the  Progressives'  detectives  have 
caught  Jarvie  trying  to  buy  one  of  Heney's  lieu 
tenants." 

"What?"  cried  Luke.  The  veins  stood  out,  big 
and  blue,  on  his  gripping  hands. 

"  Of  course  the  Heney  man  was  really  working 
with  the  detectives,"  moaned  Venable;  "  but  that 
won't  help.  They  had  a  dictaphone  in  the  hotel 
room " 

"In  what  hotel  room?" 

"  The  one  that  Jarvie  was  to  meet  the  Heney  man 
in.  I  thought  he'd  be  more  careful.  I  told  him " 

Luke  stood  erect.  He  folded  his  arms.  Venable's 
confession  shook  him,  but  he  exerted  all  his  strength 
of  will  to  command  himself. 

"What  are  you  telling  me?"  he  asked.  "Are 
you  telling  me  that  the  League  has  been  going  in  for 
rotten  work  of  that  sort?  Are  you  telling  me  that 
you — you  of  all  people — have  been  engineering 

it?" 

Venable's  terror  gave  quick  place  to  amazement. 

'  You  don't  mean  to  say  you  didn't  understand 
that?  "  he  countered.  "  How  do  you  suppose  politics 
are  run,  anyway?  Where  have  you  been  all  these 
years  under  Leighton?  "  Anger  came  to  his  aid;  his 


29o  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

loose  jaw  wagged.  "  Don't  try  to  get  out  of  this 
trouble  by  pretending  you  didn't  know  about  it. 
What  we  do,  we  do  for  the  best  ends,  but  I  have 
always  said — always — that  the  only  way  to  beat  the 
devil  is  to  fight  him  with  fire." 

"  Wait,  please,"  said  Luke.  "  I  want  to  get  this 
thing  straight.  You  say  that  all  your  reform  move 
ments  have  had  some  of  this  element  in  them?  " 

"  I  say  we  have  always  fought  the  devil  with 
fire." 

"  And  this  campaign.  You've  used  your  fire  in 
it?" 

"  As  little  as  possible.  We  never  used  more  than 
we  could  help." 

"  Did  the  committee  know  it?  " 

Venable  reached  for  the  telephone. 

"  I  can't  waste  time  over  such  quibbles  now,"  he 
said.  *  Jarvie's  arrested  and  we  must  get  him  out 
and  learn  the  details  to  prepare  our  defense." 

"  But  the  committee  knew?  " 

"  Oh,  ask  them  yourself !  They  have  a  meeting 
this  afternoon.  Of  course,  they  knew !  They  have 
been  in  these  fights  since  long  before  you  were  sent 
to  school,  and  they  are  not  fools." 

"  You  bet  I  will  ask  them!  "  said  Luke. 

He  walked  out  of  his  office,  out  of  the  League 
headquarters  and  into  the  street. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  291 

§2.  His  tired  brain  demanded  action.  It  presented 
one  picture,  a  canvas  as  full  of  figures  as  a  battle 
field  by  Delacroix.  There  he  saw  all  that  he  had  done 
or  caused  to  be  done :  Yeates  turned  back  to  the  baser 
cause,  Nelson  forced  to  follow,  Venable  facing  finan 
cial  disaster  and  soiling  his  old  hands  with  crime; 
burglary,  prostitution,  and  fraud  stimulated  to  defeat 
him;  police,  city  officials,  and  bankers  corrupted  to 
ensnare  him;  his  little  fortune,  on  which  hung  his 
mother's  living,  imperiled;  Betty  imperiled,  Forbes 
and  the  honorable  business  history  of  his  firm  im 
periled;  the  factory's  employees  fronting  starvation 
and  threatening  violence;  the  elder  political  parties 
dragged  into  a  repetition  of  their  former  offenses, 
the  reform  organization  sharing  in  the  evils  it 
sought  to  reform — these  were  the  present  results  of 
his  endeavors  to  civic  righteousness.  Could  man 
kind  be  so  closely  linked?  Was  there  no  end  to  the 
lives  and  souls  that  must  be  wronged  or  made  wrong 
by  one  man  trying  to  do  right?  He  could  not  con 
template  the  question. 

To  escape  thought  and  find  action,  he  went  to 
Brooklyn.  He  took  a  taxi  to  the  factory. 

The  huge  brown  building  rose  taciturn  before  him, 
ugly,  dour.  It  ran  the  whole  way  across  the  end 
of  the  street  and  was  flanked  by  rows  of  tumbledown 
dwellings.  One  tenuous  column  of  smoke  curled 


292  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

from  the  chimney  of  its  engine-room,  but,  all  about, 
the  streets  had  an  air  to  which  Luke  was  wholly 
unaccustomed.  The  traffic  that  used  to  rattle  through 
them  had  ceased;  they  seemed  at  first  sight  empty; 
yet  at  every  corner  were  groups  of  men  and  women, 
idle  with  that  idleness  which  sits  like  the  outward 
tokens  of  a  contagious  disease  upon  workers  who 
have  ceased  their  work  in  anger. 

Luke  saw  them  glance  up  at  him  as  his  open  taxi- 
cab  whirled  past  them:  uncouth,  slouching  figures, 
with  stooped  shoulders  and  sullen  faces.  He  had 
not  supposed  that  he  could  be  known  to  a  score  of 
them,  but  the  portraits  of  him  distributed  for  cam 
paign  purposes  had  made  him  familiar:  the  first  few 
groups  merely  looked  at  him  and  sneered;  then  some 
one  shouted  an  obscene  epithet  after  him,  and  when 
the  cab  drew  up  before  the  office-door  of  the  factory, 
a  half-brick,  tossed  from  the  farther  side  of  the  street, 
shattered  the  glass  windscreen  at  the  chauffeur's  back. 

Luke's  impulse  was  toward  physical  reprisal.  He 
jumped  from  the  taxi  and  darted  around  it. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  street  there  was  only  a 
single  figure  in  sight:  a  figure  that  leaned  against  a 
lamp-post.  Once  it  had  been  a  woman;  now  it  was 
only  misery.  Red  toes  burst  from  its  bulging  shoes 
from  which  the  stockings  fell  so  far  that,  the  filthy 
skirt  held  up  by  a  claw-like  hand,  at  least  six  inches 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  293 

of  thin  shank,  a  pale  blue,  were  visible.  The  ragged 
jacket  hung  open  over  an  open  blouse  that  showed 
a  flat  chest.  Tangled  hair,  hatless,  fell  about  and 
almost  hid  a  red  and  swollen  face.  Through  the 
hair  a  loose  mouth  gaped,  and  a  pair  of  eyes  burned 
yellow.  The  right  hand  was  extended,  clenched. 

"  You  go  to  hell,  you  hypocrite!"  croaked  the 
figure. 

Luke  turned  toward  the  factory-door.  To  reach 
it,  he  had  to  press  through  a  double  line  of  men  and 
women,  silent,  ominous :  the  strikers'  picket-line.  The 
woman's  voice  croaked  from  across  the  street: 

" //a//eyloolyah,  I'm  a  bum — bum! 
Ha//eyloolyah,  bum  again !  " 

Luke's  memory  saw  a  small,  crowded  room 
papered  in  green,  with  framed  advertisements  about 
the  walls  and  many  tables,  at  one  of  which  sat  an 
unshaven,  uncollared  man  who  wore  a  greasy  derby 
hat.  .  .  . 

Luke  pushed  open  the  office-door  and  hurried  to 
Forbes's  office. 

§  3.  The  office  was  crowded.  Forbes,  determined, 
sat  at  his  desk;  he  faced  a  line  of  slouching  men  in 
shabby  clothes,  who  held  their  hats  in  their  hands 
and  shuffled  their  uneasy  feet,  and  were  headed  by 


294  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

one  man,  dressed  as  they  were,  but  better  fed  and 
brawny,  his  large  face  hard,  his  hat  upon  his  head. 
Luke  knew  that  this  was  the  workers'  committee  led 
by  the  organizer. 

"  I  haven't  another  word  to  say,"  Forbes  was  de 
claring.  A  hint  of  relief  came  to  his  voice  when  he 
saw  Luke.  "Oh,  Huber,"  he  broke  off:  "Good- 
morning.  Come  over  here  and  sit  down.  I  am  just 
telling  these  men  for  the  last  time  that  we  will  meet 
them  in  the  matter  of  hours,  but  we  can't  and  won't 
grant  them  the  ruinous  increase  of  wages  they  want." 
As  Luke  took  a  chair  beside  him,  he  continued,  ad 
dressing  his  employees  and  carefully  avoiding  the 
organizer:  "  I  have  one  gang  of  men  coming  here  in 
half  an  hour  to  take  your  jobs.  There  are  more 
where  they  came  from,  and  we'll  be  running  full  blast 
this  time  to-morrow.  If  you're  not  back  at  work  by 
the  time  the  first  gang  of  men  gets  here,  you'll  never 
get  back." 

Luke  expected  a  growl  of  anger:  there  was  no 
sound  from  them. 

The  organizer  coughed. 

"  Mr.  Forbes "  he  began. 

Forbes  smacked  his  hands  together. 

"  I  don't  know  you !  "  he  snapped. 

"  You  know  who  I  am,"  said  the  organizer  calmly. 
"  I  told  you." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  295 

"  I  don't  recognize  your  right  to  be  here." 

"  I  haven't  any  right,  because  it's  against  the  prin 
ciples  of  our  organization  to  treat  with  employers, 
but  I  thought  -  " 

Raging,  Forbes  stood  up. 

"  Against  your  principles,  is  it  ?  "  he  cried.  "  Well, 
it's  against  the  principles  of  this  firm  to  talk  to 


11  Mr.   Forbes  -  " 

"  That's  all  I've  got  ro  say." 

The  organizer  was  unruffled.  He  maintained  a 
rather  terrifying  dignity.  He  turned  to  the  men. 

"  Come  on,  fellows,"  he  said. 

With  a  loud  scraping  of  feet,  the  strikers  and 
their  leader  passed  out  of  the  room. 

Luke  and  Forbes  remained  quiet.  Even  for  some 
time  after  the  room  was  empty,  they  said  nothing, 
and  while  they  sat  thus,  a  boyish  voice  rose  from  the 
street  : 

"  Oh,  I  love  my  boss  : 

He's  a  good  friend  o'  mine; 
An'  that's  why  I'm  starving 
Out  in  the  bread-line  !  " 

Somebody  laughed,  and  several  voices  took  up  the 
chorus  : 

"  //a//eyloolyah,  I'm  a  bum  —  bum!  .  .  ,H 

The  boyish  voice  continued: 


296  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Oh,    why    don't    you    work 

Like  other  men  do? 
How  in  Hell  can  I  work 

When  there's  no  work  to  do?" 

"That's  their  logic,"  said  Forbes  fretfully.  He 
nodded  toward  the  street.  "  How  can  you  argue 
with  people  of  that  sort?" 

"  It  didn't  strike  me  that  you  were  arguing,"  said 
Luke.  "  What  are  you  going  to  do?" 

"  What  I  said." 

"You  meant  it,  then?" 

"  Every  word.  I've  taken  your  advice,  after  all : 
I've  employed  that  strike-breaker:  Breil,  you  know." 

Luke  had  heard  of  him.  Breil,  he  knew,  owned 
several  hundred  fighting-men  and  took  them  to  all 
parts  of  the  country  under  the  pretense  that  they  were 
workers  anxious  to  start  the  wheels  of  industries 
stopped  by  strikers.  Wherever  Breil  went,  trouble 
followed. 

"  Then  you'd  better  employ  the  Pinkertons,  too," 
said  Luke. 

"  They're  too  expensive,"  Forbes  said.  "  Be 
sides,"  he  added,  "  that  sort  of  thing's  un-American. 
We  won't  need  detectives  to  protect  the  right  of  the 
worker  to  work.  If  we  need  any  help,  we'll  call 
in  the  police.  I  thought  you  understood  that.  I'm 
afraid  you  will  never  learn  the  art  of  handling  men, 
Huber." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  297 

Luke  was  anxious  for  a  fight.  The  corruption 
that  he  had  discovered  in  the  League  fired  his  prim 
itive  instincts.  He  was  angry,  and  it  was  of  small 
consequence  to  him  upon  whom  he  visited  his  anger. 
Here  his  own  fortune,  honestly  come  by,  was  threat 
ened;  his  mother's  support,  Forbes's  and  Betty's.  It 
was  an  excellent  opportunity. 

"  I'm  with  you,"  he  said.  "  When  do  you  expect 
the  first  contingent  of  Breil's  men?" 

"When  I  said:  in  half  an  hour." 

"  Have  you  'phoned  police  headquarters?  " 

"  No.  What's  the  use?  I  don't  want  to  court  a 
fight.  The  presence  of  the  police  before  there  was 
a  fight  might  only  start  one.  Headquarters  sent  me 
down  two  extra  men  this  morning  when  I  asked  for 
them,  and  that's  enough  for  the  present." 

Luke  bent  to  the  telephone. 

"  I  don't  agree  with  you,"  he  said. 

Forbes's  protest  was  mild.  Luke  called  police 
headquarters  and  stated  his  case.  When  he  men 
tioned  his  name,  he  was  told  that  the  Police  Com 
missioner  was  not  to  be  found. 

"  Then  find  him,"  said  Luke. 

"  I  think  he's  gone  out,"  came  the  answer. 

"  If  you  don't  find  him  after  what  I've  told  you, 
I'll  show  up  your  action  at  the  next  meeting  I  speak 
at,"  said  Luke. 


298  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

The  Commissioner  was  found. 

"  But  what  trouble  have  you  had  so  far?  "  he  de 
manded. 

"  We  haven't  had  any  so  far,"  said  Luke.  "  What 
we  want  is  to  avoid  trouble." 

"  I  think  you're  easy  scared,"  laughed  the  Com 
missioner.  "  Have  there  been  any  threats?" 

"  No." 

"Well,  what's  itching  you,  anyhow?  My  de 
partment's  got  three  campaign  parades  and  a 
dozen  meetings  on  its  hands  to-day  besides  its  regu 
lar  business.  I  can't  spare  my  men  unless  I  know 
they're  needed." 

He  rang  off. 

§  4.  Luke  wanted  to  stay  for  the  arrival  of  Breil's 
men;  but  there  was  something  else  that  he  had  to 
do  and  could  not  postpone.  He  left  the  factory 
a  few  minutes  before  the  hour  at  which  the  strike 
breakers  were  to  arrive.  He  passed  into  a  street 
slowly  filling  with  strikers,  but  he  reassured  himself 
by  the  reflection  that  what  he  had  to  do  would  be 
brief  and  that  he  would  soon  be  free  to  return.  He 
hurried  to  the  League's  headquarters,  where  he  knew 
that  the  Committee  would  soon  be  in  session. 

For,  under  all  his  absorption  in  the  affairs  of  the 
factory,  and  in  spite  of  his  desire  to  abjure  thought 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  299 

'for  action,  his  brain  had  been  busy.  It  was  telling 
him  something  new  about  politics.  It  was  receiving 
the  truth  about  parties  as,  from  his  vantage-ground, 
he  had  seen  it. 

He  did  not  stop  in  his  own  office.  He  went  at 
once  to  the  committee-room,  which  opened  from  that 
of  the  typists'.  The  Committee  must  have  received 
a  special  summons  and  begun  its  work  before  the 
usual  time.  Business,  as  Luke  entered,  was  already 
under  weigh,  and  the  room  was  filled.  In  the  body 
of  the  narrow  hall  a  crowd  of  men  lounged  upon 
rows  of  those  collapsible  chairs,  clamped  together, 
which  undertakers  hire  out  for  funerals;  most  of 
the  men  had  cigars  in  their  mouths,  and  the  smoky 
air  smelled  of  tobacco  and  the  fumes  from  the  action 
of  alcohol  on  the  digestive  juices.  On  a  small  plat 
form  at  one  end  of  the  room  sat  Venable,  who  was 
chairman,  and,  among  the  several  persons  grouped 
about  him,  Luke  was  surprised  to  note  both  Yeates 
and  Nelson.  Nearly  all  of  the  company  looked  at 
the  newcomer,  and  Venable,  after  looking,  glanced 
quickly  away.  Several  committeemen  whispered  to 
gether,  and  one  laughed. 

Luke  sat  in  the  first  vacant  chair  that  he  could 
find. 

"  It  is  moved  and  seconded,"  Venable  was  say 
ing,  "  that  the  order  of  business  be  suspended.  All 


300  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

those  in  favor  will  signify  their  consent  in  the  usual 


manner." 


A  droning  assent  answered  him. 

"  So  ordered/'  said  Venable,  and  looked  uneasily 
in  Luke's  direction. 

There  was  an  embarrassed  pause.  Finally  Yeates 
got  to  his  feet. 

"  Mr.  Chairman,"  he  said. 

Venable  bowed. 

Yeates's  hands  were  in  his  pockets;  his  glance  was 
fixed  on  the  floor. 

"  I  propose  this  resolution,"  he  said,  his  voice 
low,  his  words  coming  rapidly :  "  That  it  is  the  belief 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Municipal  Re 
form  League  of  New  York  that  Mr.  Luke  Huber 
should  be  asked  to  withdraw  from  its  ticket,  on 
which  he  now  appears  as  its  candidate  for  District- 
Attorney,  and  that  he  is  hereby  so  asked  to  do." 

There  was  no  hubbub ;  everybody  but  Luke  ap 
peared  to  have  known  what  was  coming.  If  there 
was  any  discomposure,  it  was  plainly  due  to  Luke's 
unexpectedly  early  appearance.  Everybody  looked 
at  him  again. 

From  a  front  seat,  one  man,  evidently  assigned 
to  the  task,  rose  abruptly. 

"  Second  the  motion,"  he  mumbled,  and  sat 
down. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  301 

Luke  was  standing  before  Venable  could  ask: 

"Any  remarks ?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Luke. 

"  Question !    Question !  "  called  a  dozen  voices. 

Luke's  voice  was  raised  above  theirs. 

"  I  want "  he  began. 

"  Sit  down !  "  yelled  somebody  behind  him. 

Luke  turned,  but  the  interrupter  did  not  reveal 
himself. 

"  I  want  to  say  one  word  about  this  motion," 
Luke  began.  He  swept  the  room  with  a  steady  gaze 
and  then  let  his  eyes  rest  on  the  chairman. 

Perhaps  because  their  candidate  had  never  seemed 
more  lazy  or  unconcerned,  the  Committee  offered  no 
immediate  objection.  It  was  Venable  that,  without 
meeting  Luke's  glance,  interposed. 

"  Considering  the  topic  under  discussion,"  said 
he,  "  it  would  be  more  in  accord  with  the  usual 
procedure  if  Mr.  Huber  were  not  in  the  hall." 

"  Good  for  you !  "  cried  a  man  in  the  back  row 
of  chairs. 

"  No!    Give  him  a  chance!  "  cried  another. 

Luke  raised  his  hand  to  quiet  them. 

"  Considering  that  this  is  supposed  to  be  a  meet 
ing  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  League,"  he 
said,  "  it  would  be  more  in  accord  with  the  usual  pro 
cedure  if  any  motions  made  to  it  were  made  by  mem- 


302  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

bers  of  the  Committee.  Mr.  Yeates  is  not  even  a 
member  of  the  League." 

"  Sit  down !  "  said  the  voice  from  the  back 
row. 

"  Oh,  sit  down!"  echoed  a  neighbor  wearily. 

"  We  can  easy  find  somebody  else  if  Yeates  won't 
do !  "  cried  another  voice. 

"  I  am  well  aware  of  that,"  said  Luke,  "  and  so 
I  don't  propose  to  quibble " 

"  Ain't  he  obligin'  ?  "  called  the  back-row  man. 

"  And  besides,"  Luke  continued,  "  if  you  would 
only  listen  to  me  for  a  minute,  you'll  find  out  that  I 
came  here  with  my  mind  made  up  to  do  just  what 
you're  now  asking  me  to  do." 

He  could  feel  their  amazement  at  his  words  and 
so  he  no  longer  heeded  the  back-row  man's  com 
ment: 

"  You  mean  you  came  here  to  sit  down?" 

"Have  I  the  floor?"  asked  Luke  of  Venable. 

The  chairman  writhed. 

"  In  that  case,"  Luke  pursued,  choosing  to  accept 
Venable's  movement  as  a  sign  of  assent,  "  I  only 
want  to  say  that  I  made  up  my  mind  this  morning, 
of  my  own  free  will,  to  leave  the  ticket  and  the 
League." 

He  was  interrupted  by  a  roar  of  disapproval. 
The  crowd  had  recovered  its  wits.  Resignation 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  303 

would  not  suit  its  purpose.  Dismissal  alone  would 
suit  that.  A  turmoil  of  voices  arose. 

As  if  to  climb  above  their  noise,  Luke  stood  on 
tiptoe. 

"  Because  this  morning,"  he  shouted,  "  I  dis 
covered " 

Old  Venable  banged  his  desk  with  the  gavel. 

"Out  of  order!"  he  bawled. 

Luke  waved  him  down. 

"  That  this  League,"  he  yelled,  "  was  as  corrupt 
as " 

They  were  all  on  their  feet.  Some  were  stand 
ing  on  their  chairs.  The  men  next  to  Luke  tugged 
at  his  coat.  Other  men  rushed  at  him  crying  threats. 
They  shook  their  fists  and  cursed  him. 

Luke  was  as  mad  as  any  of  them  now.  His  hands 
struck  out  at  the  twisting  figures  about  him.  The 
tendons  of  his  throat  swelled  like  knots  as  he 
screamed : 

" as  corrupt  as  its  enemies!  Corrupt!  Cor 
rupt  !  Corrupt !  And  I  leave  you  to  your  own 
rottenness !  " 

He  fought  his  way  through  them  to  the  door.  He 
flung  one  man  across  a  chair  that  crashed  under  its 
sudden  burden.  Another  man  who  stood  in  his  way, 
he  struck  with  an  upper-cut  under  the  chin  and  sent 
him  bouncing  against  the  wall.  Hooting,  swearing, 


304  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

yelling,  they  crowded  behind  him,  and  he  fought  his 
way  clear  and  almost  ran  through  the  outer  room 
full  of  astonished  stenographers. 

A  girl  ran  after  him. 

"  Someone  was  wantin'  you  on  the  telephone,  Mr. 
Huber,"  she  panted.  "  I  think  he  said  his  name 
was  Forbes  and  I  know  he  said  it  was  very  impor 


tant." 


Luke  paused,  looked  at  her  as  if  she  were  speak 
ing  an  alien  tongue  and,  unanswering,  pressed  on  to 
the  elevators. 

§5.  What  now? 

He  thought  about  the  newspapers,  because  his 
whole  soul  was  still  set  upon  self-justification.  He 
went  to  the  Union  Square  Hotel;  found  the  public 
stenographer,  dictated  to  her,  and  signed,  copies  of 
a  statement  briefly  saying  that  he  had  left  the  ticket 
of  the  League  because  he  had  found  the  organization 
corrupt;  posted  these  to  the  press,  and  then,  already 
wondering  why  he  had  bothered  to  follow  a  course 
of  publicity  that  was  really  directed  solely  by  habit, 
turned  again  into  the  street. 

The  idea  of  party  had  been  torn  out  of  him,  and 
he  felt  as  if  an  arm  or  a  leg  had  been  torn  out  of 
him.  He  could  not  imagine  a  man  being  whole  with 
out  being  part  of  a  party  and  thereby  having  a  party 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  305 

as  part  of  him.    Even  yet  the  lingering  hope  of  the 
impossible  made  its  claim. 

But  his  reason  fought  that  claim  with  the  sword 
of  remembered  experiences.  It  recalled  his  faith  in 
the  party  into  which,  almost  literally,  he  had  been 
born,  and  how  that  faith  was  shattered;  his  sub 
sequent  belief  in  the  theory  of  reform  within  the 
party,  or  the  party's  ability  to  reform  itself,  and 
how  that  belief  was  broken;  his  intimate  knowledge 
of  corruption  at  the  head  of  the  other  two  parties; 
his  discovery,  that  morning,  of  the  same  baseness 
in  independent  reform  movements.  Certain  as  he 
was  of  the  rightness  of  his  attitude  toward  those 
strikers  at  the  Forbes  mill,  he  was  yet  able  to  see 
that  even  the  working-class,  cheated  by  one  political 
organization  after  the  other,  could  not  win  its 
ultimate  desires  through  any  political  organization, 
though  they  formed  one  of  their  own.  Where  was 
the  entity?  What  was  a  party  but  the  people  that 
composed  it?  Could  a  party  be  a  thing-in-itself ? 
Could  it  have  any  existence  save  in  and  through  its 
members?  That  mattered  nothing.  Whether  the 
members  imposed  evil  upon  the  organization  that 
they  created,  or  whether  the  thing  that  they  created 
imposed  evil  on  its  creators,  the  evil  was  in 
herent  in  Party.  The  irrefutable  fact  was  that  the 
disease  lay  not  in  the  form  of  a  party  and  political 


3o6  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

system,  but  in  the  system  itself:  parties  were  wrong 
ab  initio,  politics  were  evil  in  their  conception  and 
being.  Not  this  or  that  party  was  responsible,  nor 
were  these  or  those  politics;  parties  were  not  diseased, 
politics  were  not  diseased.  Party  in  the  abstract, 
Politics  in  themselves  were  the  disease. 

Nevertheless,  he  would  hold  those  letters  for  a 
little  while.  .  .  . 

§  6.  That  turn  of  his  passing  thought  toward  the 
position  of  Labor  reminded  him  of  the  message  that 
the  stenographer  had  given  him.  He  went  to  a 
telephone  and  called  up  the  factory. 

Over  the  wire,  Forbes's  voice  came  in  a  broken 
cry.  Breil's  men  had  arrived  on  time,  and  the  strik 
ers  were  waiting  for  them.  There  was  a  pitched 
battle  in  the  street.  The  few  policemen  on  duty 
disappeared.  The  strike-breakers  fled  into  the  fac 
tory,  where  two  of  them  now  lay  dangerously 
wounded  and  a  dozen  others  were  badly  cut  and 
bruised. 

"  Why  didn't  you  telephone  sooner?  "  Forbes  de 
manded.  "  It's  awful !  I  sent  for  doctors  and 
nurses.  I've  been  trying  everywhere  to  get  you. 
There's  one  man — I  couldn't  find  you  anywhere — • 
I  don't  know " 

Luke  gritted  his  teeth. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  307 

"Haven't  you  'phoned  for  more  police?"  he 
asked. 

"  Of  course  I  have;  but  the  Commissioner  said 
it  wasn't  anything  but  a  street-fight." 

"  Then  I'll  try  the  Mayor." 

"  I  have  done  that,  Huber." 

"  What  did  he  say?" 

"  He  said — you  would  hardly  believe  it — he  said 
that  these  matters  were  the  Commissioner's  busi 


ness." 


§  7.  Luke  went  himself  to  the  Commissioner  and 
the  Mayor,  and  was  given  the  answers  that  Forbes 
had  been  given.  The  Commissioner  said  that  he 
had  the  reports  of  his  patrolmen,  and  that  these 
spoke  of  the  matter  as  trivial  when  it  happened  and 
described  it  as  now  ended.  In  the  Mayor's  office  he 
was  told: 

"  I  have  to  depend  on  the  word  of  my  Commis 


sioner." 


Luke  spent  the  remainder  of  the  afternoon  trying 
by  long-distance  telephone  to  reach  the  executive 
office  at  Albany.  When  he  got  an  answer,  it  was 
from  the  Governor's  secretary,  and  was  to  the  effect 
that  he  now  expected:  no  troops  could  be  called 
out  for  service  in  any  county  of  the  State  until  the 
local  civil  authorities  asked  for  them. 


308  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

§  8.  That  night,  when  there  was  a  lull  in  the  tur 
moil  around  the  factory,  Luke  and  Forbes  sat  late 
in  the  library  of  Forbes's  house,  trying  to  devise 
some  plan  to  save  the  situation.  It  was  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning  when  Luke  walked  into  the  darkened 
hall;  but  there  Betty's  warm  arms  were  around  his 
neck,  and  Betty's  voice  was  whispering  in  his  ear: 

"  It  will  come  out  all  right.  I  know  it  will  come 
out  all  right,  because  we're  right." 

He  kissed  her. 

"  I  hope  I  do  better  at  this  than  I  did  in  politics," 
he  said.  "  I  haven't  had  time  to  tell  you,  but  I  lost 
there,  dear." 

"  No,  you  didn't."  He  felt  her  hair  brush  his 
cheek  as  she  shook  her  head  in  contradiction.  "  No, 
you  didn't.  You  had  your  choice  between  doing  what 
was  right  and  what  was  wrong.  The  only  way  to 
win  was  the  way  they  thought  was  losing.  But  you 
did  what  was  right — and  so  it  was  they  that  lost,  and 
it  was  my  brave  man  that  won  1  " 


CHAPTER  XV 

Something  had  gone  wrong  again  with  the  head 
of  that  office  in  the  Wall  Street  skyscraper  where 
George  Washington  watched  the  stock-ticker  and 
where  the  windows  looked  down  on  filmy  streets 
full  of  figures  bobbing  like  entangled  flies :  the  plump 
man  in  brown,  the  man  with  the  pointed  teeth  and 
the  beady  eyes,  was  once  more  absent.  The  slight 
cold  that  the  doctors  mentioned,  the  catarrhal  affec 
tion,  had  returned;  the  mucous  membranes  of  the 
throat  were  re-inflamed;  the  malady  that  no  news 
paper  gave  a  name  to  renewed  its  war. 

As  always,  the  office  work  proceeded  with  silent 
regularity.  Simpson,  the  almoner,  saw  callers.  At- 
wood,  the  chief  broker,  telephoned  for  orders  up 
town.  Conover,  the  confidential  clerk,  traveled  sev 
eral  times  a  day  between  his  master's  house  and  his 
master's  place  of  business  in  one  of  his  master's 
motor-cars.  At  the  brown  man's  home,  the  famous 
physicians  issued  their  non-committal  bulletins;  L. 
Bergen  Rivington  and  George  J.  Hallett  came  in 
and  went  out,  the  former  worried  and  elliptical,  the 
latter  loud  in  denial.  And  directly  across  the  street 

309 


3io  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

the  relays  of  reporters  resumed  their  watching,  asked 
hourly  the  same  questions  and  received  always  the 
same  replies.  Rumor  once  more  hinted  dark  things 
about  a  ruined  digestion  and  an  overworked  brain. 

Nevertheless,  there  was  a  difference  between  this 
occasion  and  its  predecessors,  and  the  delicate  nerves 
of  the  financial  world  quivered  with  their  subtle  and 
sure  appreciation  of  it.  The  interval  of  good  health 
had  been  briefer  than  ever  before.  Simpson  looked 
grave.  Atwood  received  few  orders.  Conover  more 
often  than  not  failed  to  see  whom  he  sought.  The 
famous  physicians  called  other  famous  physicians  into 
consultation.  Rivington  and  Hallett  were  sometimes 
denied  audience.  The  reporters  sent  their  chiefs 
a  word  that  made  every  newspaper-office  in  the 
country  hunt  up  a  certain  long-prepared  obituary,  set 
it  in  type  and  keep  it  standing  on  the  bank  with  a 
slug-line  that  read,  "  Hold  for  Orders."  Rumor 
shook  its  thousand  heads,  and  this  time  rumor  was 
right:  the  thumbs  of  the  gods  were  turned  down. 

No  more  rising  early  and  working  late  for  the 
man  with  the  beady  eyes  and  hairy  hands.  No  more 
gluttony.  No  more  scheming.  All  hours  are  alike 
in  the  sickroom;  his  only  food  was  tepid  broth,  and 
about  a  brain  too  tired  to  scheme  for  itself,  the  only 
scheming  was  how  to  drag  forward  from  minute  to 
minute  its  life  that  was  death-in-life. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  311 

In  the  street  straw  had  one  day  been  strewn  to 
quiet  the  noise  of  traffic,  and  the  next  day  commands 
from  City  Hall  closed  that  street  to  traffic.  Outside 
was  silence,  and  silence  was  inside,  behind  the  brown- 
stone  walls  and  shuttered  windows,  over  the  rich 
rugs,  among  the  pictures  by  the  great  dead  artists. 

In  a  darkened  room,  in  a  big  Louis  XV.  bed, 
bought  from  the  poor  descendant  of  a  Provencal 
marquis  for  whose  mistress  it  was  made,  the  patient 
lay.  His  legs  were  beneath  the  covers,  but  an  up 
holstered  bed-rest  propped  him  so  that  his  trunk  was 
almost  upright,  wrapped  in  a  house-jacket  of  French 
flannel,  russet  brown.  Freshly  shaven  and  carefully 
brushed,  he  was  as  neat  as  if  he  were  about  to  go  to 
business;  but  his  cheeks  hung  like  folds  of  dough  over 
his  heavy  jaw-bone;  his  short-sighted  eyes  were  fixed 
on  the  tapestried  canopy  above  him,  which  showed 
the  rape  of  Europa;  his  lips,  turned  pale,  were  pulled 
back  tightly  over  his  yellow  fangs.  On  the  edge  of 
the  coverlet,  high-drawn,  his  hairy  hands  gave  the 
only  sign  of  life  in  all  his  body:  the  rounded  tips 
of  their  stumpy  fingers  moved  constantly  as  if  they 
were  spinning  .  .  .  spinning  .  .  . 

He  would  not  go  to  business  any  more. 

It  was  the  day  on  which  Luke's  month  of  prom 
ised  suppression  was  to  expire.  In  the  sick-room  of 
the  man  in  russet-brown  two  doctors  stood  at  one 


312  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

side  of  the  bed  now,  with  a  nurse  between  them. 
L.  Bergen  Rivington  and  George  J.  Hallett  were  ad 
mitted  to  the  room,  and  Rivington  stood  at  the  foot 
of  the  bed  with  his  trembling  hand  before  his  face, 
while  Hallett,  beside  him,  squared  his  jaw  and  looked 
at  the  dying  man,  who  did  not  look  at  him.  Some 
servants  that  had  worked  in  the  house  for  twenty 
years  hovered  in  the  shadows  and  sobbed,  because 
they  loved  their  master  and  had  long  cause  to  love 
him.  A  clergyman,  in  his  vestments,  knelt  at  the 
side  of  the  bed  opposite  the  doctors  and  read  from 
a  little  book. 

"  O  Almighty  God,"  read  the  clergyman,  his  voice 
sounding  loud  in  the  quiet  of  the  room — "  with 
whom  do  live  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect, 
after  they  are  delivered  from  their  earthly  prisons; 
we  humbly  commend  the  soul  of  thy  servant,  our 
dear  brother,  into  thy  hands  .  .  . " 

One  doctor  quietly  reached  out  and  placed  a  seek 
ing  finger  on  the  dying  man's  wrist. 

".    .    .    that  it  may  be  precious  in  thy  sight  .   .   ." 

The  doctor  looked  over  his  shoulder  at  his  col 
league.  The  colleague's  eyes  asked  a  question.  The 
examining  doctor  nodded. 

'  .  .  .  it  may  be  presented  pure  and  without 
spot  before  thee." 

Then  the  man  on  the  bed  died.    He  died  silently, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  313 

speedily,  grimly.  The  stumpy  fingers  stopped  their 
weaving  motion;  they  shot  into  the  palms  of  the 
hands,  and  the  hands  clenched  until  only  their  hairy 
backs  were  visible.  The  lips  tightened  for  a  moment 
until  the  pointed  fangs  seemed  to  have  bitten  through 
them;  the  beady  eyes  protruded  still  farther  from 
their  sockets;  the  crooked  arms  curved  stiffly  toward 
the  belly;  the  crooked  knees  shot  toward  the  chest; 
the  whole  figure  seemed  to  curl  up;  the  mouth  fell 
open. 

The  clergyman  looked,  hesitated  and  continued: 
"...  teach  us  who  survive,  in  this  and  other 
like  daily  spectacles  of  mortality,  to  see  how  frail 
and  uncertain  our  own  condition  is;  and  so  to  num 
ber  our  days,  that  we  may  seriously  apply  our  hearts 
to  that  holy  and  heavenly  wisdom,  whilst  we  live 
here,  which  may  in  the  end  bring  us  to  life  everlast 
ing,  through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  thine  only 
Son  our  Lord.  Amen." 

Far  down  in  the  offices  on  the  twentieth  floor  of 
a  Wall  Street  skyscraper,  everything  was  going  on 
as  usual.  Only  one  room  of  the  suite  was  empty,  and 
even  in  it,  under  the  solemn  Washington,  the  stock- 
ticker  was  weaving  out  its  yards  and  yards  of  tape 
by  the  windows  that  looked  to  the  web  of  streets  on. 
which  the  people  buzzed  always  like  entangled  flies. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

§  i.  Public  opinion  had  been  unanimous  concern 
ing  Luke's  break  with  the  Municipal  Reform  League. 
Only  in  the  terms  of  their  condemnation  did  the 
newspapers  differ:  they  were  all  agreed  that  Luke 
was  anathema.  His  letters  to  the  press  served  him  to 
small  purpose;  the  Executive  Committee  issued  a 
statement  declaring  that  his  withdrawal  had  been 
requested  "  because  of  inflammatory  utterances  and 
practical  policies  contrary  to  the  spirit  and  purpose 
of  the  organization."  The  official  statement  was  ac 
cepted  and  his  individual  version  treated  as  a  futile 
attempt  to  blacken  a  reputable,  if  mistaken,  move 
ment.  It  was  everywhere  believed  that  he  had  been 
forced  to  resign  because  of  his  Cooper  Union  speech, 
and  it  was  in  some  quarters  hinted  that  his  former 
comrades  held  him  responsible  for  the  attempt  to 
bribe  the  Heney  lieutenant — a  scandal  made  the  most 
of  during  the  subsequent  period  of  the  campaign  and 
thereafter  dropped  before  it  reached  the  courts. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Committee  had  met  in 
secret  session,  some  of  its  members  gave  their  own 
story  of  its  turbulent  denouement  to  the  reporters, 

314 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  31$ 

and  this  was  published  in  a  form  that  made  Luke 
appear  as  a  cornered  bully. 

i 

"  Mr.  Huber  [said  the  most  dignified  editorial  on  the  subject] 
was  rnce  doubtless  a  well-intentioned  young  man,  but  his  first 
taste  of  popular  applause  seems  to  have  intoxicated  him,  made 
him  see  visions  of  one  real  evil  in  every  impossible  quarter  and 
caused  a  fit  of  that  acute  mania  wherein  one's  best  friends  are 
mistaken  for  one's  worst  enemies.  This  is  the  only  charitable 
explanation  of  the  tragic  end  to  a  promising  career,  but  on  that 
end  the  Municipal  Reform  League  is  certainly  to  be  congratu 
lated." 

Other  editorials  laughed  at  Luke's  habit  of  hitting 
at  vast  conspiracies  of  which  he  never  produced 
proof,  and  some  charged  him  with  flagrant  dishon 
esty.  He  reverted  for  a  time  to  his  belief  in  pub 
licity  and  bombarded  the  papers  with  letters  of  ex 
planation;  but  the  papers  at  first  garbled  and  then 
forgot  to  print  what  he  wrote.  He  sent  for  reporters 
to  give  them  interviews,  but,  although  the  men  still 
liked  him,  and  politely  took  down  his  every  word, 
they  could  never  get  their  "  copy  "  beyond  the  edi 
torial  desks.  Within  a  few  days,  the  former  candi 
date  was  a  newspaper  joke. 

He  had,  of  course,  written  to  his  mother  and  sister 
about  his  engagement  to  Betty,  since  publicly  an 
nounced,  and  they  had  replied  with  kindly  letters, 
glad  because  of  his  planned  marriage  to  the  daughter 
of  a  man  of  good  family  supposed  to  be  well-to-do, 


316  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

and  hopeful  for  his  continued  happiness.  Now,  with 
the  news  of  his  political  overthrow  published  broad 
cast,  Jane  wrote  to  ask  him  why  he  had  been  so  fool 
ish  and  to  quote  her  husband  the  Congressman,  to 
the  effect  that  what  Luke  needed  was  an  apprentice 
ship  at  practical  politics;  his  mother's  comment  was 
one  of  love  triumphant  over  the  defects  of  the  loved 
object  and  forgiveness  for  behavior  inexplicable  in 
his  father's  son. 

The  strike  dragged  on  wearily.  After  the  first 
outbreak  of  violence,  the  leaders  were  able,  for  a 
time,  to  prevail  upon  the  strikers  to  use  more  peace 
able  methods;  but  the  resulting  days  of  siege  were 
as  trying  for  both  sides  as  the  active  warfare  had 
been.  Forbes's  boasts  to  the  contrary  notwithstand 
ing,  the  firm,  handicapped  by  the  unskilled  labor  of 
the  strike-breakers,  found  itself  unable  to  fulfil  its 
contracts ;  the  new  recruits  were  all  raw  men,  whereas 
much  of  the  factory's  work  was  intended  for  trained 
women:  badly  needed  money  was  being  forfeited. 
The  dispossessed  employees,  on  the  other  hand, 
rapidly  exhausted  their  own  supplies;  because  they 
had  gone  over  to  industrial  unionism,  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  to  which  their  old  "  local  "  had 
been  attached  through  the  trade-union  that  it  was  a 
part  of,  refused  help  and  forbade  the  union  to  give 
any;  there  had  been  a  national  reaction  against  the 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  317 

I.  W.  W.,  and  it  could  furnish  but  little  money.  The 
strikers  held  angry  meetings  and  faced  starvation; 
Luke  and  Forbes  met  in  long  conferences  and  faced 
ruin. 

In  those  days,  only  Luke's  love  for  Betty  sus 
tained  him,  and  Betty,  being  new  to  both  love  and 
disaster,  remained  loyal.  She  was  confident  that  the 
politicians  and  the  papers  were  conspiring  against 
him,  and,  knowing  her  father's  gentleness  in  his 
home,  she  was  equally  confident  that  the  strikers  were 
wrong. 

Luke  did  not  inquire  as  to  the  reasons  of  her  stead 
fastness.  In  the  first  darkness  of  disaster,  he  was  too 
glad  for  support  to  quarrel  with  its  origin.  She  was 
warm  and  human,  sympathetic  and  at  hand;  she 
loved  him.  With  all  his  heart  and  soul,  he  returned 
her  love.  In  the  last  analysis,  he  fought,  he  told 
himself,  for  an  ideal  that,  if  greater  than  them  both 
or  separately,  was  yet  necessary  to  them.  The  ideal 
had  an  undeniable  lien  upon  the  best  of  his  strength 
of  body  and  mind;  yet  whatever  of  these  the  ideal 
could  spare  was  not  for  him,  but  for  Betty. 

Then  came  the  death  of  the  man  whom  Luke  had 
regarded  as  the  personification  of  the  evils  from 
which  the  country  was  suffering.  It  came  close 
enough  upon  the  Cooper  Union  speech  to  make 
that  speech  appear  in  the  worst  possible  taste;  but 


3i8  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

it  was  an  event  considered  of  such  tremendous 
importance  in  itself  that  Luke  was  forgotten  and 
once  for  all  swept  from  the  columns  of  the  news 
papers. 

Those  papers,  even  the  daring  few  that  had  once 
or  twice  had  the  temerity  feebly  to  question  the  lesser 
schemes  of  the  man  who  now  pursued  no  more 
schemes,  were  crowded  with  reverential  accounts  of 
his  illness,  awed  pictures  of  his  last  moments,  lauda 
tory  descriptions  of  his  Napoleonic  career,  and  edi 
torials  that  spoke  only  of  his  undeniable  greatness 
and  his  outstanding  benefactions.  The  country  talked 
as  if  its  king  had  died;  the  achievements  of  none  of 
the  three  presidents  killed  while  in  office  had  re 
ceived  louder  praise  or  more  lengthy  attention.  He 
left  two  large  fortunes  to  individuals:  one  to  the 
niece  to  whom  Yeates  was  engaged,  and  one  to  be 
divided  among  more  distant  relatives,  with  bequests 
to  faithful  servants  in  his  house  and  businesses;  but 
the  bulk  of  his  money  went  to  the  colleges  and  hos 
pitals  that  he  had  so  magnificently  assisted  during  his 
life.  Firmly,  the  entire  press  observed  the  Latin 
maxim:  they  let  nothing  but  good  be  spoken  of  the 
dead. 

Luke  was  by  this  time  prepared  for  such  an  atti 
tude  on  the  part  of  the  papers,  but,  on  his  own  part, 
he  permitted  no  illusions.  The  fact  of  death  must 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  319 

always  be  solemn;  but  the  force  that  ended  wrong 
doing  did  not  palliate  it.  This  blow  was  like  a  judg 
ment  from  Heaven.  Luke  did  not  think  so  much  of 
how  it  would  benefit  him  as  of  how  it  would  benefit 
the  country,  but  he  was  of  too  common  clay  not  to 
spare  some  reflection  to  the  influence  of  the  event 
upon  his  own  affairs :  it  would  probably  mean  the  dis 
solution  of  the  antagonism  to  him  in  business;  it 
would  surely  mean  the  cessation  of  the  personal  per 
secution  that  had  already  wrecked  his  political  and 
professional  career.  Yet  it  was  more  for  the  triumph 
of  the  larger  and  broader  good  that  he  felt  ready  to 
chant  a  Jubilate. 

Once  the  thoughts  crossed  his  mind:  If  Heaven 
were  just,  and  this  death  were  indeed  Heaven's 
judgment,  why  had  Heaven's  judgment  been  so  long 
delayed?  And,  since  Heaven  had  been  tardy  when 
the  death  of  a  single  man  could  thus  ease  the  world 
and  make  for  social  righteousness,  how  could  he 
have  held  it  wrong  had  some  sufferer  from  that  evil 
struck,  in  Heaven's  default,  this  single  blow  for  the 
freedom  of  society?  But  he  was  in  no  mood  to  front 
casuistry:  the  thing  had  happened,  and  that  was 
happiness  enough. 

He  was  reading  the  news  in  his  rooms  at  the 
Arapahoe.  He  had  sat  up  late  with  Forbes  the  night 
before  and  had  risen  late  this  morning,  breakfasting 


320  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

in  the  apartment  house.  He  knew  that  he  ought 
to  go  to  the  factory,  but  he  could  not  go  at 
once. 

He  began  again  to  dream  dreams  as  he  used  to 
dream  them.  His  personal  failure  counted  for  noth 
ing  in  what  must  happen  now.  Suppose  he  were 
discredited  and  unable  to  win  back  the  public  con 
fidence:  somebody,  without  party  and  without  poli 
tics,  a  larger  and  better  man  than  he  had  been,  would 
assume  a  national  leadership,  where  his  had  been 
small  and  local,  and  would  now  bring  the  whole  coun 
try  back  to  the  simple  political  faith  and  the  plain, 
honest  financial  and  industrial  policies  of  the  nation's 
founders.  The  mercenaries  of  darkness  that  had 
served  the  evil  mind  could  not  now,  with  the  evil 
mind  in  perdition,  stand  for  one  day  against  the 
Army  of  Light. 

Himself?  He  would  begin  over  again,  with  Betty 
and  for  her.  In  the  new  order,  under  the  reign  of 
equity,  public  opinion  would  soon  clarify,  and  he 
could  re-establish  himself  and  perform  some  part, 
however  small,  of  the  mighty  work  of  reconstruction. 
He  had  been  too  busy  of  late  with  love  and  politics 
and  business  to  continue  in  the  social  life  in  which  Jack 
Porcellis  had  launched  him.  Porcellis's  sporadic  re 
turns  to  New  York — the  man  was  just  now  in  India 
on  the  pretense  of  studying  its  religions — were,  lat- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  321 

terly,  Luke's  sole  occasions  of  approaching  that  exist 
ence.  Save  to  secure  the  loan,  he  now  contritely  re 
called,  he  had  neglected  Ruysdael,  whose  agent  as 
yet  evinced  no  misgivings  over  the  effect  of  the  strike 
upon  Forbes's  securities,  and  on  his  last  incursions 
into  Mrs.  Ruysdael's  set,  though  Luke  had  found 
himself  liked,  he  was  made  aware  that  the  liking 
for  his  small-talk  was  severely  tempered  by  scorn 
for  his  enthusiasms.  He  must  overcome  all 
that  now.  To  be  of  use,  to  help  Betty,  he  must 
regain. 

When  he  was  a  small  boy,  his  ambition  in  life  had 
been  carpentry.  At  some  remote  time  or  other,  he 
must  have  seen  and  admired  one  of  those  journeymen 
joiners  of  the  elder  type  that  used  to  tramp  the 
country  roads  from  small  town  to  town  and  keep 
alive  by  doing  odd  jobs  at  the  houses  on  their  end 
less  way.  He  loved  tools  and  he  loved  wandering; 
even  yet  he  loved  them,  and  this  figure  had  once  rep 
resented  Romance  to  him  as  definitely  as  the  dead 
man  in  russet  brown,  long  afterward,  represented 
Evil.  This  morning,  while  he  smiled  at  the  memory 
of  those  young  imaginings,  Luke  felt  a  little  of  their 
charm:  it  seemed  impossible  for  him  to  form,  as  he 
should,  his  new  plans  while  he  sat  in  an  apartment 
house  in  the  city  in  which  his  plans  must  eventually 
be  applied;  he  wished  that  he  could  drop  everything 


322  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

for  the  day  and  go  somewhere  far  out  into  the 
country  to  tramp  the  dusty  roads  and  dream  at 
ease. 

It  was  then  that  the  telephone  announced  a  caller: 
ex- Judge  Stein. 

§  2.  The  Judge,  as  he  entered,  presented  the  same 
dignified  figure  that  he  had  presented  when  Luke  last 
talked  with  him.  His  strong  face  was  solemn,  but 
undisturbed  by  its  solemnity.  He  arranged  with  care 
the  tails  of  his  frock-coat  as  he  seated  himself  in 
the  best  chair,  but  on  this  occasion  he  came  directly 
to  the  point  of  his  visit. 

"  Mr.  Huber,"  he  said,  "  a  great  many  things 
have  happened  since  we  met." 

Luke  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  I'll  admit  you've  kept  me  pretty  busy,  Judge." 

"  I  was  not  referring  to  the  unnecessary  trouble 
in  which  you  involved  yourself.  I  was  referring 
to  the  fact  that  your  month  has  elapsed  and  that 
the  man  you  threatened  is  dead." 

The  news  of  the  morning  had  temporarily  an 
nulled  Luke's  sense  of  time.  Only  yesterday  he  had 
wondered  what  use  he  should  make  of  the  Rollins 
letters,  now  carried  in  a  safer  place  than  his  coat- 
pocket;  to-day  he  had  forgotten  them. 

"  Yes,"    he   said,    gathering   his   thoughts   behind 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  323 

his  impassive  face :  "  the  month's  over  and  the  man's 
dead." 

The  Judge  leaned  impressively  forward.  He 
shook  his  white  head  gravely. 

"  Death,"  said  the  Judge,  "  wipes  out  all  ani 
mosities.  I  know  you  would  not  use  those  letters 
now,  Mr.  Huber,  because  I  know  you  would  not 
strike  a  dead  man.  So  I  have  come  to  ask  you  to 
deliver  them  to  me."  He  held  out  his  opened  hand. 

Luke  blinked  at  it. 

"  I  don't  understand,"  said  he.  "  I  thought  you 
always  represented  yourself  as — well,  as  not  profes 
sionally  retained  in  this  matter?" 

"  I  am  now,"  said  the  Judge. 

"Oh!     By  the  estate?" 

"  Not  directly  and  not  altogether."  Stein  chose 
his  words.  "  I  am  retained  by  the  company  whose 
property  those  letters  are." 

"  I  thought  you  had  left  the  railroad-claim  business 
long  ago.  Perhaps  you  are  specially  retained  for  this 
one  job?  " 

The  Judge  looked  hurt.    His  firm  mouth  quivered. 

"  Mr.  Huber,"  he  said,  "  I  am  in  no  frame  of 
mind  for  joking  to-day.  This  man  is  dead,  and  he 
was  my  friend " 

"  I'm  sorry  to  have  seemed  to  joke,"  Luke  inter 
rupted. 


324  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Stein  bowed  and  went  on: 

"  He  is  dead,  and  whatever  his  faults — we  all  have 
our  faults,  Mr.  Huber — they  died  with  him.  I  am 
here  only  to  ask  you  to  show  a  decent  respect  for  the 
memory  of  a  dead  enemy.  I  am  here  to  ask  you  to 
be  magnanimous,  Mr.  Huber." 

"  Magnanimous?    You  talk  as  if  I  had  won!  " 

"  The  living  are  always  the  winners,"  said  the 
Judge. 

Luke  began  to  doubt  that  theory. 

"  And  so  you  want  me  to  surrender  these  letters?  " 

"Exactly.     What  use  can  they  be  to  you  now?" 

"  There  were  other  people  involved.  Are  they  will 
ing  to  accept  my  terms  ?  I  know  they  can't  hurt  me, 
because  I  know  they  haven't  the  courage  or  the 
power  of  the  man  you've  been  talking  about.  But 
that's  neither  here  nor  there:  will  they  accept  my 
terms?" 

"  They  did  not  write  either  of  the  letters  Mr. 
Huber." 

"  They're  inculpated  by  them." 

"  Not  legally." 

"  Enough  inculpated  to  serve  my  purpose." 

"  If  you  think  that,"  said  the  Judge,  "  I  can  only 
repeat  the  offer  I  made  you  when  I  called  here  be 
fore." 

Luke  smiled. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  325 

"  And  I  can  only  refuse  it." 

"  Mr.  Huber,"  the  Judge  began  again,  "  the  man 
is  dead " 

Luke's  nerves  had  been  strained  for  many  a  day. 
He  leaped  to  his  feet. 

"  Of  course  the  man's  dead!"  he  cried.  "He 
was  dead  this  morning,  and  he's  still  dead.  Why  do 
you  keep  saying  that  over  and  over?  I'm  tired  of 
hearing  it."  He  saw  the  look  of  pain  return.  "  I 
beg  your  pardon,"  he  said;  "  but  I  might  as  well  tell 
you  first  and  last  that  I  won't  surrender  those  let 
ters,  no  matter  what  you  plead  or  threaten.  I  won't 
tell  you  what  I  intend  to  do  with  them,  either.  And 
the  only  reason  I  know  that  they  must  be  of  use  to 
me  is  your  coming  here  and  saying  they  aren't  any 
use." 

The  Judge  rose  also. 

"  Mr.  Huber,"  said  he,  "  I  am  very  sorry  to  hear 
you  speak  this  way.  I  can't  tell  you  how  sorry  I  am. 
You  ought  to  know  by  this  time " 

"  I  couldn't  know  anything,"  Luke  cut  in,  "  that 
would  make  me  change  my  mind." 

"  But  suppose,"  said  the  Judge  heavily,  "  suppose 
my  friends  happen  to  know  that  the  situation  of  the 
Forbes  Company " 

Luke's  face  went  very  white. 

He  opened  the  door. 


326  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Good-morning,  Judge,"  he  said. 

§  3.  Stein's  polite,  but  portentous  adieux  were  not 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  old  before  Luke  sought  the 
office  of  the  newspaper  that  had  been  the  last  to 
refuse  him  space  in  its  columns  for  his  political  ex 
planations.  The  man  that  was  dead  had,  it  seemed, 
left  a  something  of  his  influence  behind  him:  Luke 
resolved  to  strike  at  it. 

The  office-boy  was  a  long  time  returning,  and, 
when  he  did,  it  was  to  announce : 

"  He  says  ter  find  out  whatcher  want." 

"  Give  me  my  card,"  said  Luke. 

He  scribbled  on  the  card:  "Non-political." 

"  Now,"  he  said,  "  try  him  again." 

§  4.  The  editor  was  one  of  those  men  whom  news 
paper-work  so  affects  that  they  look  any  age  between 
thirty  and  fifty.  His  nervous  face  was  full  of  tense 
lines,  and  every  few  minutes  his  mouth  twitched. 

Luke  told  his  story  and  showed  the  letters.  The 
editor  read  them. 

4  Why  do  you  want  to  do  this?  "  he  asked. 

'Why?"  Luke  was  amazed.  "Because  I  want 
to  protect  the  public." 

"Then  you'd  better  go  to  the  M.  &  N.  rail 
road." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  327 

"  But  you  know  they  wouldn't  do  anything. 
They've  promised  before." 

"  I  can't  believe  that,"  said  the  editor. 

11 1  know  it,"  said  Luke. 

"  I  can't  believe  it.  You  have  always  been  too 
sudden,  Mr.  Huber — if  you'll  pardon  my  saying  so. 
At  any  rate,  we  can't  print  these  things."  He  re 
turned  the  letters.  "  After  all,  the  man's  dead,  you 
know." 

"What's  that  got  to  do  with  it?"  Luke's  voice 
rose  in  reply  to  the  hated  phrase.  "  I  want  to  keep 
some  other  people  from  dying." 

The  editor  picked  up  a  proof-sheet  and  began  to 
read  it. 

"  It  would  be  bad  taste  for  us  to  print  that,  just 
now,"  he  said.  "  Come  around  in  a  couple  of  weeks, 
and  we  may  think  about  it.  Why,  the  body's  hardly 
cold  yet." 

§  5.  As  Forbes  had  once  gone  from  bank  to  bank, 
Luke  went  that  morning  from  newspaper-office  to 
newspaper-office.  Yet  there  was  this  difference :  that, 
whereas  Forbes  had  only  tried  a  few  banks,  Luke 
tried  a  dozen  newspaper-offices.  His  search  included 
the  papers  notoriously  controlled  by  the  money  or 
the  advertising  of  the  power  that  opposed  him;  he 
even  tried  some  of  those  journals  of  the  city  which  are 


328  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

printed  in  foreign  tongues,  and  he  tried  the  radical 
press.  He  tried  all  in  vain. 

Most  of  the  editors  were  men  that  had  fought 
him  when  he  was  the  candidate  of  the  Municipal  Re 
form  League;  some  that  he  sought  were  of  those 
who  had  tired  of  him  when  he  pestered  them  with 
explanations  of  his  political  overthrow.  Many  re 
fused  to  see  him;  one  or  two  pronounced  him  mad. 
The  radicals  shared  the  view  of  the  man  with  whom 
he  first  spoke :  they  would  not  be  guilty  of  bad  taste. 
Wherever  he  got  word  with  a  person  in  authority, 
the  word  was  the  same ;  he  met  with  that  all-sufficient 
argument : 

"  After  all,  the  man's  dead." 

§  6.  When,  finally,  he  acknowledged  defeat,  his 
wearied  nerves  manifested  their  condition  through 
deep  physical  exhaustion.  He  could  not  front  the 
thought  ot  passing  the  remainder  of  the  day  at  the 
factory;  could  not  go  at  once  from  one  losing  fight  to 
another.  However  much  he  might  be  needed,  he 
could  not  do  it.  Until  he  had  rested,  he  would  be 
useless,  and  worse  than  useless. 

He  did  not  go  back  to  the  Arapahoe.  Instead, 
with  the  open  country  calling  him,  he  went  to  the 
Grand  Central  Station  and  took  a  train  into  Con 
necticut. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  329' 

The  day  was  Saturday,  and  the  cars  were  filled 
with  released  workers,  but  Luke  avoided  them  by 
going  far  and  descending  at  the  least  important  of 
the  train's  stops.  Tired  though  he  was,  he  walked 
beyond  the  little  town.  He  cut  across  fields  to  a  hill 
crowned  by  a  clump  of  trees  and  there,  in  the  shade, 
threw  himself  on  the  ground  and  lay  for  hours  think 
ing  of  nothing  and  looking  at  white  clouds  sailing 
across  a  blue  sky.  He  wished  that  he  could  lie  here 
forever.  .  .  . 

It  was  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  he  re 
turned  to  his  rooms.  It  was  far  too  late  to  reply 
to  the  score  of  telephone-calls  that,  he  was  told, 
Forbes  had  made  on  him. 

Luke  remembered  that  he  had  promised  Betty  to 
go  with  her  to  service  at  Nicholson's  church. 

§  7.  He  was  strengthened  by  his  brief  rest,  and  he 
went  to  Betty  with  a  heart  renewed. 

"  Father's  still  asleep,"  she  said,  as  she  met  him  in 
the  hall  of  the  Forbes  house,  her  gloved  fingers 
busied  with  her  hair,  preventing  the  escape  of  one  of 
the  yellow  wire  pins  that  held  the  few  strands  too 
short  for  her  pins  of  tortoise-shell.  "  He  wanted 
to  be  called,  but  he  was  so  tired  out,  I  told  the  maid 
not  to  disturb  him.  He  sat  up  ever  so  late,  waiting 
for  you.  Where  were  you,  Luke?  " 


330  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Luke  had  rarely  seen  her  looking  better.  The 
Sunday  calm  had  erased  all  the  tokens  of  the  recent 
trying  days  from  her  face:  it  was  rosy  and  young; 
it  was  appealingly  almost  childish.  The  morning  sun 
was  in  her  hair;  her  brown  eyes  were  wide  and 
bright.  He  did  not  want  to  spoil  her  by  the  story 
of  his  yesterday's  defeat,  and  so  he  passed  it  by 
with  some  facile  excuses  for  his  absence  from  the 
factory. 

"  We're  late,"  he  said,  as  he  helped  her  into  the 
Forbes  motor-car. 

The  chauffeur  ran  close  to  the  speed-laws  all  the 
way  to  Manhattan.  They  reached  their  journey's 
end  immediately  after  the  choir  had  taken  its  posi 
tion  in  the  chancel. 

The  ritualistic  church  of  St.  Athanasius  is  one  of 
the  handsomest  in  New  York.  It  was  built  in  close 
imitation  of  Beverley  Minster,  and  so  elaborate  was 
the  work  done  upon  it  that,  in  spite  of  its  wealthy 
congregation's  assistance,  it  still  staggered  under  the 
load  of  a  heavy  debt.  It  has  the  Yorkshire  building's 
two  Early  English  transepts,  Perpendicular  towers, 
and  a  Late  Decorated  nave  with  flying  and  pinnacled 
buttresses.  Inside,  as  Luke  and  Betty  entered  it,  the 
warmly-colored  light  fell  through  many  Lancet  win 
dows  on  the  crowd  of  fashionable  worshipers  kneel 
ing  before  narrow  chairs.  Nicholson's  voice,  coming 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  331 

from  behind  the  choir-screen,  sounded  clear  but  far 
away. 

Luke  and  Betty  walked  up  the  nearest  aisle  and 
took  the  seats  assigned  to  the  Forbes  family,  close 
to  the  carved  pulpit  and  under  the  triforium.  The 
high  arches  were  carried  on  clustered  pillars,  and, 
down  the  perspective  of  the  nave,  Luke  could  see  into 
the  choir,  to  the  Decorated  reredos,  where,  as  in 
Beverley,  the  piers  increased  in  size  by  successive 
groups  of  shafts  that  projected  like  corbels.  He 
knelt  beside  her  and  tried  to  give  his  mind  to  the 
service;  but  his  eyes,  familiar  though  they  were  with 
the  church,  wandered  to  the  north  aisle's  windows 
and  the  ogee  and  foliated  arcade  under  them,  to  the 
people  in  front  of  him,  and  so,  inevitably,  to  the  girl 
at  his  side. 

The  service  proceeded.  The  people  said  the 
Lord's  Prayer;  Nicholson  recited  the  collect,  and 
then  read  the  Ten  Commandments  of  Moses,  the 
congregation  responding. 

"  Lord  have  mercy  upon  us  and  incline  our  hearts 
to  keep  this  law." 

After  the  creed,  Nicholson  walked  to  the  pulpit. 
He  climbed  its  steps,  and  for  a  few  moments  only  his 
clasped  hands  were  visible  as  he  knelt  inside.  Then 
rising,  he  took  his  stole  from  the  pulpit  rail,  kissed  the 


332  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

cross  embroidered  at  the  top  of  the  stole,  and  put 
it  on. 

"  In  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,"  he  began,  u  in  the 
ninth  chapter  and  the  second  verse,  it  is  written: 

"  *  All  things  come  alike  to  all :  there  is  one  event  to 
the  righteous,  and  to  the  wicked;  to  the  good,  and 
to  the  clean,  and  to  the  unclean;  to  him  that  sacri- 
ficeth,  and  to  him  that  sacrificeth  not.'  ' 

Nicholson's  face  was  earnest.  It  was  at  once  stern 
and  irradiated,  the  face  of  an  ascetic  turned  seer. 

"  And  in  the  General  Epistle  of  St.  James,"  he 
proceeded,  "  in  the  second  chapter  and  the  twenty- 
second  verse : 

"  *  Seest  thou  how  faith  wrought  with  his  works, 
and  by  works  was  faith  made  perfect? ' 

Nicholson  spoke  without  notes,  but  without  hesi 
tation. 

"  A  great  man,"  he  said,  "  has  just  died.  We  have 
heard  evil  report  of  him,  and  good  report.  We  have 
heard  whispers  against  him,  and  we  have  seen  good 
that  he  has  done;  but  his  greatness  no  man  ques 
tioned.  To-day  he  has  passed  to  his  last  account. 
To-day  the  dead  man  stands  before  his  Eternal  Judge. 
One  of  those  events  that  happen  to  the  rich  and  poor 
alike  has  happened  to  him.  With  what  he  has  done 
that  is  over,  the  Court  of  Heaven  now  alone,  in  all 
its  boundless  mercy,  has  to  deal.  We  that  remain 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  333 

here  on  earth  may  not  judge  of  that.  We  that  remain 
on  earth  must  consider  the  things  that  he  has  done 
and  are  not  over,  the  things  he  has  left  behind;  we 
must  concern  ourselves  only  with  what  concerns  us; 
it  is  our  duty  to  remember  him  by  the  works  that  he 
has  made  his  monument." 

The  preacher  dwelt  upon  the  dead  man's  rise  from 
poverty  to  vast  riches,  a  hopeful  lesson  in  the  reward 
of  thrift  and  wisdom  to  every  poor  boy  in  a  republic 
that  grants  equal  opportunity  to  all.  He  spoke  with 
an  admiration  of  the  genius  that  had  carved  its  way  to 
power  until  its  will  was  felt  in  the  uttermost  corners 
of  the  earth. 

As  he  proceeded,  Nicholson  seemed  to  forget  his 
admonition  against  the  judgment  of  things  over  and 
done  with.  He  made  direct  reference  to  Luke's 
Cooper  Union  speech,  and  he  looked  full  in  Luke's 
face  as  he  made  it. 

"  Not  long  ago,"  he  said,  "  while  this  man  was 
tottering  upon  the  brink  of  eternity,  another  man,  a 
sincere,  but  misguided  man,  made  terrible  charges 
against  him,  charges  that  reflected,  however  veiled, 
upon  the  character  and  motives  not  only  of  the  man 
now  dead,  but  a  whole  group  of  people  eminent  in 
public  and  business  life.  And  what  was  the  result? 
Nothing  that  lent  the  least  credit  to  the  accusers 
intelligence  or  appreciation  of  the  value  of  evidence, 


334  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

for  nothing  at  all  was  proven,  nothing  even  corrobo 
rated." 

Luke  flushed.  He  felt  Betty  looking  at  him,  but  he 
would  not  return  her  gaze.  He  felt  other  people  in 
the  congregation  turned  toward  him.  He  could  not 
guess  what  had  changed  Nicholson. 

The  sermon  was  proceeding  with  praises  of  the 
dead  man's  benefactions.  One  by  one  they  were  de 
scribed  and  extolled. 

"  His  greatness,"  said  Nicholson,  "  would  have 
availed  him  nothing  at  this  one  event  for  the  righteous 
and  the  wicked  if  he  had  not  had  charity,  for  we  are 
told  that  though  we  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men 
and  of  angels  and  have  not  charity,  we  are  become  as 
sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbal.  Charity,  how 
ever,  this  man  had.  The  institutions  that  he  sup 
ported  and  has  endowed  have  given  and  now  forever 
will  give  learning  to  thousands  who,  but  for  them, 
would  have  lived  in  ignorance — healing  to  thou 
sands  who,  but  for  them,  would  have  died  in  agony. 

"Charity:  but  charity  alone  will  not  suffice. 
Sounding  brass  itself,  unless  it  is  informed  by  faith ! 
And  this  man's  sublime  faith  even  his  worst  enemy 
cannot  deny.  For  his  counsel  and  advice,  for  his 
painstaking  and  sagacious  investment  of  its  funds  the 
Church  is  indebted  to  this  man  as  it  is  to  no  other. 
Many  a  denomination  outside  our  own  fold  can  truly 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  335 

say  the  same  of  him  and  should  say  and  does  say  how 
much  we  owe  him,  also,  for  the  unceasing  flow  of  his 
money  into  our  treasuries.  He  did  not  speak  of  these 
things.  He  did  not  let  his  right  hand  know  what  his 
left  hand  did;  but  we  of  the  Church  remember  that 
he  gave  millions  of  dollars  to  the  faith. 

"  The  faith  of  men  of  money  is  tested  by  their 
money;  yet  this  man's  faith  had  many  another  test  and 
rose  triumphant  from  them  all.  His  attendance  at  the 
Church's  services — not  only  on  Sundays,  but  on  fast- 
days  and  holidays,  on  saints'-days  and  work-days — 
never  failed.  His  wisdom  was  free  to  our  councils, 
and  I  have  been  told  on  reliable  authority  that  he 
never  rose  in  the  morning,  went  to  bed  at  night,  or 
embarked  on  any  business  enterprise,  however  small, 
without  first  humbly  and  privately  asking  direction  of 
the  Most  High.  He  knew  in  his  every  act  that  the 
greatest  man  is  as  nothing  before  God;  and  when  he 
came  to  die,  he  died  like  a  Christian,  a  priest  of  God 
by  his  side  and  the  words  of  God's  mercy  sounding 
in  his  dulling  ears.  From  first  to  last,  his  works  and 
his  faith  were  one :  '  Seest  thou  how  faith  wrought 
with  his  works,  and  by  works  was  faith  made  per 
fect?'  For  us  who  are  Christians,  that  is  enough. 
It  is  enough  to  make  us  each  pray  to  meet  his  end, 
each  at  his  own  station  in  life,  as  this  great  man  met 
his.  De  mortuis  nil  nisi  bonum." 


336  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Only  amazement  had  held  Luke  in  his  chair.  At 
this  phrase,  he  half  rose. 

Nicholson,  however,  was  concluding: 

"  There  is  but  one  word  more,  a  word  personal 
to  us  of  this  congregation,  to  be  said.  I  need  not 
recall  to  you  the  heavy  privations  that  this  church  in 
which  we  now  are  has  undergone.  They  were  gen 
erously  met  and  nobly  borne,  but,  in  spite  of  all  your 
nobility  and  all  your  generosity,  the  time  came,  a 
week  since,  when  it  seemed  indeed  as  if  the  forces  of 
evil  were  about  to  conquer,  and  as  if,  unless  Heaven 
intervened,  this  beautiful  building  must  pass  out  of 
our  hands. 

"  Three  days  before  the  death  of  the  man  I  have 
been  speaking  of  this  morning,  an  impulse  came  to  me, 
and  I  wrote  him  a  letter.  My  friends,  I  do  not  be 
lieve  that  that  impulse  was  of  this  world. 

"  I  have  since  been  told  that  when  the  letter  reached 
him,  his  eyes  were  too  dim  to  read  it;  yet,  when  he 
was  informed  of  its  purport,  he  asked  that  it  be  read 
to  him.  It  was  read,  and  then,  with  a  hand  already 
trembling  at  the  touch  of  death,  he  took  a  pen  and 
signed  the  last  check  of  his  career.  That  check  was 
our  emancipation;  it  was  a  check  for  the  entire  sum 
for  which  this  Church  of  St.  Athanasius — this  beau 
tiful  church  in  which  it  is  our  privilege  to  worship 
God — stood  indebted.  I  ask  you  to  join  in  prayer  for 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  337 

the  soul  of  our  dead  benefactor  and  then  to  unite  in 
the  doxology  for  thanksgiving  to  God.  '  Seest  thou 
how  faith  wrought  with  his  works,  and  by  works  was 
faith  made  perfect?' ' 

§  8.   "  Where  are  you  going?  "  gasped  Betty. 

The  people  were  kneeling,  but  Luke  was  on  his 
feet. 

"  I'm  going  to  get  out  of  here,"  he  answered. 
"  I'm  going  to  get  into  the  open.  I  want  fresh  air.'1 

He  strode  down  the  aisle  under  the  clustered  pil 
lars  of  the  triforium,  and  Betty  hurried  after.  At 
the  church  door  stood  a  table  bearing  a  pile  of  leaflets, 
and  unconsciously  he  took  one  as  he  passed. 

§  9.  In  the  sunlit  street,  he  felt  a  little  ashamed  of 
his  impetuosity.  Betty  was  indignant. 

"  Why  did  you  make  such  a  scene?  "  she  asked. 

"  I'm  sorry,"  said  Luke.  "  I  simply  couldn't  stand 
it.  A  priest  talking  like  that!  And  Nicholson  the 
priest!  " 

"  He  shouldn't  have  attacked  you,"  Betty  granted, 
"  but  you  didn't  put  him  in  the  wrong  by  behaving 
impolitely." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  care  about  putting  him  in  the  wrong, 
and  I  don't  care  about  his  attacking  me !  "  Luke 
helped  her  into  the  waiting  motor,  and  the  car  started 


338  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

smoothly  on  its  return  journey.  "  What  I  couldn't 
stand  was  the  Church  making  a  hero  out  of  such  a 
man;  the  Church  selling  itself  for  a  few  thousand 
dollars." 

"  But  the  man  did  do  good,  Luke." 

"  How  much — compared  with  the  evil  he  did?  " 

"I  can't  know  that.     Who  can?" 

"  You  talk  like  Nicholson !  " 

"  No,  I  don't."  She  put  her  hand  on  his.  "  But 
what  good  can  come  of  abusing  the  man?  " 

"  I  don't  want  him  abused :  I  only  don't  want  God's 
Church  to  make  a  saint  out  of  him." 

"  Nobody's  doing  that,  Luke.  They're  simply  be 
ing  decent  about  him.  After  all,  he  is  dead." 

Luke  shook  her  hand  free.  Then,  suddenly,  he 
tossed  back  his  head  and  broke  into  a  high  laugh.  He 
frightened  her. 

"Luke!    What  is  it?" 

He  could  not  at  once  answer. 

"  Oh,  what  is  the  matter?  "  she  pleaded. 

"  You !  "  he  laughed.  "  You,  too !  "  To  control 
himself  he  unfolded  and  looked  at  the  leaflet  that  he 
had  picked  up  in  the  church  doorway,  and  had  been 
heedlessly  folding  and  unfolding  ever  since.  His 
mirth  stopped.  "  Listen  to  this,"  he  ordered.  "  By 
Jove,  it's  not  Nicholson  alone;  it's  the  whole  bunch, 
and  speaking  officially,  too !  Listen  to  this.  It's  a 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  339 

printed  statement  issued  by  the  General  Executive 
Committee  of  the  whole  church — not  St.  Athanasius 
alone,  but  the  entire  denomination — and  it's  worse 
than  Nicholson's  sermon."  His  eyes  ran  from  line  to 
line.  "  '  We  call  upon  the  prayers  of  the  faithful,'  ' 
he  read  as  well  as  the  motion  of  the  car  permitted. 
.  .  .  "  '  He  has  not  buried  his  talent  nor  hidden  his 
candle  under  a  bushel.  ...  So  far  as  a  man's  life  can, 
his  life  exemplified  Law  and  Order,  realized  the 
truth  uttered  by  Richard  Hooker:  "  Of  Law  there 
can  be  no  less  acknowledged,  than  that  her  seat  is  in 
the  bosom  of  God,  the  harmony  of  the  world." 

Betty  had  been  listening  attentively. 

"Well?"  she  asked. 

"  '  Well  ?  '"  repeated  Luke.  "  '  Well  ?  '  Don't 
you  see?  The  whole  Church  is  standing  up  for  him. 
And  not  our  Church  alone:  all  churches.  He'd 
bought  them — bought  them !  " 

"  Luke  !     How  can  you?  " 

"  Yes,  he  has.  One  way  or  another.  He  or 
his  kind:  for  I'm  beginning  to  see  at  last  he  wasn't 
alone — never  was  and  never  will  be.  And  seeing 
that,  I'm  not  blaming  him  so  much — any  of  the  hims. 
I  don't  say,  any  more,  he  was  worse  than  the  rest  of 
us;  he  was  only  stronger.  Maybe  he  was  only  the 
average  man  in  extraordinary  circumstances.  He 
didn't  make  them — I'm  beginning  to  believe  that, 


340  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

too, — they  made  him.  But  the  Church!  The 
churches !  They've  sinned  against  the  light.  They're 
liars.  They're — why,  they  must  be  founded  on  a 
lie:  their  light  must  be  darkness!  " 

The  girl  had  edged  away  from  him,  her  brown 
eyes  big  with  horror  at  his  blasphemy.  The  motor 
was  drawing  up  before  the  door  of  the  Forbes  house; 
it  was  drawing  up  in  a  quiet  Brooklyn  street.  And 
there,  in  that  Sunday  stillness,  and  among  those  sur 
roundings  of  commonplace  respectability,  suddenly 
the  Marvel  came  to  him. 

It  came  to  him,  this  denial  of  Religion,  as  a  pro 
found  religious  experience.  It  was  Miracle,  burning, 
blinding,  transfiguring.  Elemental,  tremendous.  It 
was  a  stroke  that  affected  his  entire  being;  suffused 
him;  changed  him,  spiritually,  in  every  atom.  It 
hurled  him  from  all  his  old  bases  and  set  him  in  a 
new  relation  to  the  universe.  It  was  not  reformation; 
it  was  revolution.  Luke  was  another  personality: 
this  was  the  "  new  birth."  He  saw  the  glory  of  in 
dividuality,  the  divinity  of  his  humanity.  In  the  flash 
of  revelation,  he  learned  to  walk  and  knew  that  for 
all  his  life  he  had  been  permitting  himself  to  be  car 
ried.  Without  guessing  it,  he  had  been,  he  now 
knew,  all  these  years,  afraid,  and  now,  with  this 
new  inspiration,  he  faced  all  things  and  feared  none. 
Believing,  he  had  been  dead,  but  denying,  was  alive 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  341 

again;  faithful,  he  had  been  lost,  faithless,  he  was 
found,  and  not  by  any  other  help  than  his  own:  he 
had  found  himself.  It  was  the  thing  that,  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye,  can  make  an  honest  man  of  a  liar, 
an  abstainer  of  a  dipsomaniac,  good  out  of  evil. 
It  was  the  same  thing  that  happens  to  a  penitent  at  the 
moment  of  "  conversion,"  of  "  receiving  grace,"  of 
"experiencing  religion";  the  same  force  operating 
with  the  same  power  and  the  same  manner,  but  in  an 
opposite  direction. 

As  St.  Paul  rose  from  the  earth  after  his  vision 
near  Damascus,  so  Luke  staggered  from  the  Forbes 
motor-car.  His  hands  groped  at  the  air. 

"  Betty!  "  he  gasped;  "  tell  your  father  I  can't  see 
him.  Not  now. — I'll  be  back  later. — Perhaps  in  a 
little  while.— Later." 

She  put  out  her  arms  to  him. 

"What  is  it,  Luke?"  she  cried.  "What's  the 
matter?" 

His  eyes  looked  at  her,  but  he  did  not  see  her.  He 
turned  from  her  to  the  street. 

"  I  don't  know,"  he  said,  "  but  I  think — I  think 
I'm  Being  Saved." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

§  i.  For  an  hour,  for  two  hours,  he  tried  to  adjust 
his  mental  and  spiritual  sight  to  the  blazing  illumina 
tion;  but  adjustment,  he  at  length  realized,  must  be 
a  matter  of  many  days.  The  illumination  was  too 
sudden  and  too  intense.  He  could  no  more  assess 
moral  values  and  determine  ethical  duties  than  a 
new-born  baby  can  know  the  use  of  those  objects  most 
habitual  to  its  elders — a  new-born  baby  to  whom  the 
lamp  on  a  table  and  the  moon  in  the  sky  are  one  and 
the  same.  There  must  be  false  starts  on  wrong  roads ; 
there  must  be  disappointment  and  stumbling;  there 
must  even  be  moments  of  relapse.  The  great  thing 
for  Luke  was  that,  as  the  lives  of  some  men  are 
changed  forever  for  the  better  by  an  affirmation  of 
faith,  his  life  had  now  forever  been  changed  for  the 
better  by  a  rejection  of  faith.  He  had  denied  the 
superhuman  in  man's  affairs,  and  the  banishment  of 
the  superhuman  raised  the  human;  it  left  the  man  no 
longer  a  pigmy  trembling  before  a  giant,  but  himself 
a  giant,  limited  and  mortal,  yet  self-sufficient  and 
divine.  He  had  found  what  was  for  him  the  ulti- 

342 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  343 

mate  strength;  for  the  knowledge  of  how  to  use  that 
strength  rightly  he  could  wait. 

Meanwhile,  there  was  the  patent  obligation  to 
Forbes.  Forbes  needed  him;  Luke  returned  to  the 
Forbes  house. 

§  2.  Forbes  was  waiting  in  the  library. 

"Where  were  you  yesterday?  Are  you  going 
crazy,  Huber?  You  knew  I  needed  you." 

The  elder  man  had  borne  disaster  hardly.  He 
looked  tired  and  ill. 

"  I'm  sorry,"  said  Luke.    "  I  was  busy." 

"  Busy?  What  could  have  kept  you  busy  in  town 
when  you  knew  this  strike  was  going  on?  And  you 
went  to  church  this  morning  instead  of  waking  me ! 
Betty  says  you're  sick.  Are  you  ?  " 

"  No.    I'm  only  getting  well." 

Forbes's  tone  was  more  considerate : 

"  Anyhow,  you  might  have  come  in  to  luncheon. 
Have  you  had  anything  to  eat?  " 

"  I'm  all  right,"  said  Luke. 

"  But  Betty  says " 

"Where  is  she?" 

"  She's  in  her  room.  I  told  her  to  He  down.  She's 
all  upset.  Really,  Huber " 

Luke  seated  himself  by  the  table  covered  with 
magazines  and  sprawling  sections  of  the  Sunday  news- 


344  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

papers.    Outwardly,  he  was  as  self-contained  as  dur 
ing  his  days  in  Leighton's  office. 

'  What  was  it  you  wanted  to  see  me  about?  "  he 
interrupted. 

Forbes  took  a  chair  opposite.  He  assumed  the 
voice  of  persuasion. 

"  I  want  to  be  perfectly  frank  with  you,  Huber," 
he  began. 

Luke  thought :  "  I  wonder  what  he  is  going  to  keep 
back."  All  that  he  said  was:  "  Yes?  " 

4  Yes,"  resumed  Forbes,  "  and  I  want  you  to  be 
perfectly  frank  with  me.  You  once  told  me  you'd 
made  enemies  of  the  people  who've  since  made  such 
trouble  for  us,  because  you  had  some  letters  or  other 
that  belonged  to  them,  didn't  you?  " 

Luke  bowed  assent.  He  knew  now  what  to  ex 
pect. 

"  Well,"  Forbes  went  on,  "  the  only  use  those 
letters  were  to  you  was  political.  Now  that  you 
can't  use  them  politically,  why  don't  you  give  them 
up?" 

"  You  mean  now  that  I've  been  chucked  out  of 
politics?" 

"  Well,  you  know  you've  ruined  yourself  there. 
You  can  never  get  back  again.  When  you  can't  hurt 
your  enemies,  why  not  make  them  your  friends?  " 

"  No,  thank  you." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  345 

"  But  these  letters  are  of  no  use  to  you." 

"  How  do  you  know  that?  "  asked  Luke  quietly. 

Forbes  blushed. 

"Are  they?"  he  countered. 

"  And  why,"  persisted  Luke,  "  didn't  you  suggest 
this  to  me  days  ago?  "  His  eyes  probed  the  man  be 
fore  him.  "  What  else  did  Judge  Stein  say  to  you?  " 
he  demanded. 

Forbes  drew  back  in  his  chair.  His  flush  deepened, 
but  presently  he  made  an  impatient  gesture. 

"  Oh,  very  well,"  he  said  defiantly,  "  the  Judge  did 
see  me  yesterday,  and  if  you  had  been  at  the  factory, 
as  you  should  have  been,  you'd  have  seen  him,  too." 

Luke  thought  it  unnecessary  to  remark  that  he 
had  been  honored  by  a  previous  call  from  Stein. 

"  What  else  did  he  say?"  Luke  repeated. 

"  He  said  a  great  deal;  but  the  upshot  of  it  was 
that  he  would  induce  your  enemies,  who  are  the  men 
that  control  the  trust  we're  competing  with,  to  lower 
wages  and  join  the  fight  against  the  employees,  if  you 
would  agree  to  surrender  those  letters." 

"  I  won't  do  it,"  said  Luke. 

"  Don't  be  hasty,"  Forbes  implored.  "  Think  of 
me.  Think  of  Betty " 

Luke  winced. 

"  Don't  begin  that,"  he  commanded. 

"  But  what  have  you  to  gain?  "  asked  Forbes. 


346  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Nothing.  I've  nothing  to  gain.  I've  only  some 
thing  to  keep:  my  self-respect." 

"  Your  self-conceit,  you  mean.  Be  reasonable, 
Huber.  These  people  won't  give  in." 

"So  I  must?" 

"  They  won't  give  in,  and  you  can't  get  back  to 
politics  and  can't  get  any  paper  to  take  up  your 
case." 

"  Oh," — Luke  could  have  laughed — "  so  Stein 
told  you  that,  too,  did  he?  " 

"  Never  mind  what  he  told  me.  The  point  is:  his 
people  can  help  you  if  you'll  only  acknowledge  defeat, 
now  that  you're  defeated.  They  can  give  you  back 
all  you've  lost,  and  nobody  else  can." 

"  And  if  I  don't  admit  I'm  whipped,  they'll  whip 
me  some  more?  " 

"  They'll  finish  what  they've  begun,  Huber;  they 
will  wipe  out  the  Business,  too." 

"  I'm  sorry,"  said  Luke — "  very  sorry  for  you,  I 
mean.  But  there's  no  use  arguing:  I  won't  give  in." 

Forbes  exhausted  his  every  resource.  He  pleaded 
for  the  business,  for  Luke,  for  Betty.  For  an  hour  he 
sent  the  squadrons  of  his  appeal  against  the  impreg 
nable  wall  of  Luke's  determination. 

"What  have  you  to  gain?"  he  reiterated;  and 
once  he  said :  "  The  worst  of  the  crowd  is  dead,  any 
how." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  347 

Luke  was  not  listening.    He  was  saying  to  himself : 

"  What  is  it  I  am  to  do  next  ?  There  is  still  a  little 
money  left  to  my  account  at  the  bank.  It  will  keep 
me  for  a  year  and  mother  for  a  year — and  then  ?  I'm 
making  Forbes  hold  out  against  the  trust,  and  if  he 
does  hold  out  his  mill  is  doomed.  No  hope  there! 
Can  I  go  back  to  the  Law?  I  can't,  because  the  Law 
is  just  what  the  Church  is.  The  Law  was  made  by 
the  powerful,  it  is  interpreted  by  their  paid  servants 
and  administered  by  their  slaves.  It  is  a  game  de 
vised  by  the  crafty  powerful  to  cheat  the  simple  weak. 
The  last  five  years  have  proved  that  to  me,  and  I'm 
ashamed  that  it  took  me  so  long  to  learn.  Betty " 

He  did  not  dare  to  think  of  Betty.  He  thought 
rather  of  the  open  country,  of  the  smell  of  the  earth 
on  which  he  had  been  lying  twenty-four  hours  ago, 
and  the  coolness  and  freedom  of  the  white  clouds 
against  that  sky  of  blue.  .  .  . 

Forbes  was  saying  something  about  his  grand 
father  and  the  Business.  Luke  got  up. 

"  There's  no  use  your  wasting  your  breath,"  he 
declared.  "  Nothing  that  you  could  say  would 
change  me — no,  nothing  that  even  Betty  could  say! 
But  I'll  do  this :  I'll  never  be  away  from  the  factory 
again  when  I  ought  to  be  there;  I'll  stand  by  you  till 
we've  beaten  these  strikers  or  till  they've  ruined  us." 

He  walked  out  of  the  room  and  closed  the  door 


348  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

before  Forbes  could  answer  him,  and  he  walked  into 
Betty's  arms. 

§  3.  "  Luke,"  she  whispered,  "  what  was  the  mat 
ter  this  morning?  Won't  you  tell  me,  dear?  " 

He  felt  the  blood  mount  hotly  to  his  head.  Her 
hair  was  sweet  to  his  nostrils. 

"  Don't,"  he  said  sharply. 

«  But,  Luke " 

He  drew  her  hands  from  his  neck.  He  imprisoned 
her  wrists  in  his  grasp. 

"  I  don't  quite  know  what's  the  matter — yet,"  he 
said.  "  It's  all  come  too  suddenly.  But,  Betty — O, 
Betty,  I  don't  believe  I'm  the  man  for  you !  " 

She  asked  him  what  he  meant,  and  he  could  not  tell 
her.  She  pressed  him,  and  he  could  only  repeat  his 
conviction. 

"  Do  you  mean  " — she  drew  her  hands  away — 
"  that  you  like  some  other  girl  better?  " 

He  laughed  rudely. 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  not  that." 

"  But  you  don't  care  for  me?  "  She  recovered  all 
her  dignity.  "  If  you  don't  care  for  me,  why  aren't 
you  brave  enough  to  say  so?  " 

The  afternoon  sun  fell  through  the  hall-window 
and  showed  her  to  him  very  fair. 

"  Betty,"  he  said  slowly,  "  there  are  only  two  kinds 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  349 

of  marriages  you  understand :  there  is  the  Church,  but 
I  don't  believe  any  more  in  any  church;  and  there's 
the  Law,  but  the  Law  can't  make  a  marriage  for  me." 

At  least  the  immediate  purport  of  the  words  she 
understood.  Her  face  burned  red  and  then  became 
white  and  still. 

"  You  mean "  she  began.  Her  hands 

clenched.  "  Oh !  "  she  cried. 

She  tried  to  pass  him. 

Passion  left  him,  but  a  great  sorrow  took  its  place 
as  his  master.  He  wanted  to  justify  himself;  he  even 
so  wanted  to  repair  the  hurt  done  her  that  he  would 
have  shut  his  eyes  to  the  new  light.  He  seized  her 
hand. 

"Betty!" 

She  wrenched  her  hand. 

"  Let  me  go!  I  want  to  go  to  father!  Let  me 
go!" 

"  But,  Betty,  wait — listen " 

She  freed  her  hand. 

"I  shan't  tell  him.  Don't  be  afraid.  He  has 
enough  to  worry  him.  Only  don't  let  me  ever  see 
you  again !  " 

§  4.  All  that  night  Luke  walked  the  streets.  It 
was  breakfast-time  when  he  returned  to  the  Arapahoe. 
His  letters  and  the  morning  papers  were  lying  on  the 


350  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

floor  of  his  sitting-room  where  they  had  fallen  when 
the  bell-boy  dropped  them  through  the  slit  in  the 
door. 

He  read  the  letters  first.  There  were  not  many, 
for  his  correspondence  had  of  late  declined  to  almost 
nothing.  The  only  things  of  interest  were  a  note 
from  Porcellis,  announcing  that  he  would  soon  return 
to  New  York  and  a  letter  from  Luke's  mother,  say 
ing  that  she  had  written  Betty  to  pay  her  a  visit:  "  It 
is  only  right  that  your  fiancee  should  do  this,"  wrote 
Mrs.  Huber,  "  and  that  I  should  have  an  early 
chance  of  knowing  the  girl  that  is  to  be  my  son's 
wife." 

Luke  wondered  how  Betty  would  reply  to  the  invi 
tation.  As  he  was  thinking  of  this,  his  eye  caught  the 
heaviest  headlines  on  the  first  page  of  the  newspaper: 
during  the  night,  a  body  of  strikers  at  the  Forbes 
factory  had  marched  to  the  main  entrance  and  bat 
tered  down  the  door  in  an  endeavor  to  drag  out  the 
Breil  men  who  slept  there  as  guards  by  night  and 
worked  there  by  day;  the  Breil  men  resisted;  there 
was  a  general  battle  with  at  least  two  deaths ;  the  at 
tacking  party  were  repulsed,  but  the  police,  sum 
moned  by  a  riot-call,  gained  what  appeared  to  be  no 
more  than  a  preliminary  skirmish,  for  the  entire 
neighborhood  was  in  arms  and  more  bloodshed  was 
expected  to-day. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  351 

Luke  dropped  the  paper  with  an  oath.  He  was 
more  hungry  than  before  for  a  part  in  this  fight — in 
any  fight.  If  Religion  was  a  coward,  he  would  make 
one  more  appeal  to  Government,  to  force.  He  called 
Albany  on  the  long-distance  telephone.  He  kept  on 
calling  until  he  had  brought  the  Governor  to  the 
other  end  of  the  wire,  and  then  he  was  astonished  to 
hear  that  the  proper  civil  authorities  in  New  York 
had  already  asked  for  troops. 

"  It  is  always  best,"  he  was  told,  "  not  to  drag  lo 
cal  men  into  an  affair  of  this  sort,  if  it  can  be  helped; 
so  I'm  having  the  Adjutant  General  send  down  a 
company  from  Poughkeepsie.  That  ought  to  be 
enough  for  the  present,  and  they  ought  to  get  there 
by  noon." 

Luke  muttered  his  thanks  and  rang  off. 

"  I  know  why  that  was  done,"  he  said  to  himself: 
"  They  think  they'll  make  more  trouble  for  us 
with  the  militia  here  than  without  it.  Well,  we'll 


see." 


He  stripped  off  his  clothes,  went  to  the  bathroom, 
and  began  to  run  the  water  for  a  cold  plunge.  He 
was  talking  to  himself. 

"  The  worst  of  the  crowd's  dead,"  he  said.  "  That 
was  Forbes's  way  of  putting  it.  There  he  had  a 
glimpse.  Started  down  to  rock-bottom.  But  he 
didn't  arrive.  I  felt  that  way  till  only  a  little  while 


352  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

ago.  But  I  see  I  was  wrong.  I  thought  this  was  a 
one-man  show;  I  believed  in  a  sort  of  personal  Devil. 
I  wish  I'd  been  right.  It  would  have  been  all  so 
simple,  if  I'd  been  right  in  that.  But  I  wasn't.  It 
isn't  the  men ;  it's  the  system.  The  man  didn't  make 
the  system ;  the  system  made  the  man." 

He  was  wonderfully  clear  about  that  now.  All 
his  fight  against  evil  had  been  directed  toward  one 
man,  and  the  man,  was  dead  and  the  evil  remained. 
He  could  almost  pity  that  man  in  russet  brown.  That 
man  who  had  sat  at  the  fountain  of  forces  reaching 
up  and  down  through  all  the  life  of  the  world,  seemed 
to  originate  the  forces  and  use  them  for  his  own 
malign  purpose;  but  now — and  herein  lay  one  of  the 
reasons  for  Luke's  present  wonder  at  life — he  per 
ceived  certainly  that  the  man  had  been  only  a  little 
better  treated  by  the  forces  than  the  forces  treated  all 
the  rest  of  mankind,  was  their  creation  and  their  slave 
just  as  wholly  as  the  most  obscure  victim.  Indus 
trial  evolution,  working  through  the  collective  igno 
rance  of  the  race,  had  devised  the  Great  Evil.  Here 
was  a  web  that  no  spider  wove,  a  web  that  killed 
spiders  as  well  as  flies,  lived  on  with  a  life  of  its 
own,  grew  and  spread  of  itself.  So  long  as  the  web 
existed,  there  would  always  be  a  spider.  The  Web 
remained.  It  was  the  Web  that  must  be  broken. 

Yet  he  wanted  to  fight.     He  would  fight.     The 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  353 

Gospel  of  Negation  had  given  him  its  light;  it  had 
yet  to  teach  him  to  see. 

§  5.  Other  forces  vitally  affecting  Luke  were  at 
work  that  day,  at  first  far  distant  from  the  factory. 
They  were  forces  that  had  affected  him  imperfectly 
heretofore,  but  that  now  were  set  in  motion  in  a  man 
ner  no  longer  to  be  diverted. 

Ex-Judge  Stein  was  summoned  from  his  office 
almost  at  the  moment  of  his  appearance  there.  His 
motor-car  took  him  into  Wall  Street,  to  a  certain  sky 
scraper,  into  which  he  went  and  was  taken  as  far  as 
the  twentieth  floor. 

He  entered  an  unmarked  door  and  passed  an  at 
tendant  who  bowed  to  him  respectfully.  He  passed 
another  attendant.  A  third,  at  sight  of  him,  got  up 
and  went  through  a  second  door,  leaving  the  Judge 
to  wait  in  dignified  repose.  Then  the  last  attendant 
reappeared  and  nodded,  and  the  Judge  passed  the 
second  door. 

He  remained  inside  for  an  hour.  When  he  came 
out  his  mien  was  undisturbed,  but  his  strong  and 
kindly  face  was  even  graver  than  usual.  He  almost 
forgot  to  return  the  farewells  of  the  attendants  as  he 
left  them.  He  rang  twice  for  the  elevator,  although 
the  elevator  was  not  long  delayed. 


354  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  The  office,"  he  said  to  his  chauffeur  as  he  climbed 
again  into  the  car. 

§  6.  Returned  at  his  own  quarters  at  half-past  ten, 
he  sent  immediately  for  Irwin,  to  whom  he  talked  for 
perhaps  forty-five  minutes.  He  spoke  with  a  sad  in 
evitability. 

"  No  more  excuses,  no  more  extensions  of  time, 
no  more  delays,"  he  concluded — "  and  no  more  fail 


ures." 


The  twinkle  left  Irwin's  eyes. 

"  I  understand,"  he  said. 

He  could  not  fail  to  understand.  His  superior  had 
been  once  and  for  all  explicit.  Judge  Stein,  during 
his  service  to  the  public  on  the  bench,  had  never  been 
called  upon  to  pronounce  a  sentence  of  death,  but, 
had  he  been  so  called  upon,  he  would  have  spoken 
much  as  he  now  spoke  to  Irwin. 

§  7.  "  I  hate  to  have  to  tell  you  this,"  said  Irwin 
to  Quirk  at  noon  in  the  latter's  shabby  law-office, 
"  but  if  that  job  isn't  done  before  to-morrow  morn 
ing,  those  affidavits  charging  you  with  jury-fixing  are 
going  to  be  turned  over  to  the  District-Attorney,  and 
the  people  that  have  them  are  now  in  a  position  to 
make  Leighton  act  on  them,  too." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  355 

Irwin  also  had  become  specific.  The  plump  Mr. 
Quirk  lost  his  habitual  smile. 

"  It's  a  rotten  business,"  he  said. 

"  It  is,"  Irwin  agreed;  "  but  your  arrest  would  be 
a  worse  one — for  you." 

"  We  may  have  to  go  the  limit,"  said  Quirk. 

"  Then,"  said  Irwin,  "  you'd  better  go  it.  That's 
no  affair  of  mine." 

§  8.  "  This  time,"  said  Quirk,  "  you've  got  till 
to-night  to  make  up  your  mind." 

He  was  talking  to  Police-Lieutenant  Donovan.  It 
was  just  after  lunch-time. 

"  What  about?  "  asked  Donovan. 

"  Whether  you  want  to  bluff  us  again  or  lose  your 
job." 

"  We  never  did  bluff  you." 

"  Well,  then :  whether  you  want  to  get  those  let 
ters  or  get  fired.  Not  try  to  get  them :  get  them.  It's 
get  them  or  get  out."  All  the  kindliness  and  good- 
fellowship  was  missing  from  Quirk's  voice.  "  It's  one 
thing  or  the  other.  We  got  evidence  to  fire  you  on. 
You  knew  we  had,  last  time  I  talked  to  you.  Well, 
they  were  easy  on  you  then,  Hughie.  This  time  they 
mean  business." 

Donovan  looked  at  Quirk. 


356  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"  Suppose  somebody  gets  hurt?  "  he  said. 
Quirk  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

§  9.  When  Guth  came  in  late  in  the  afternoon, 
Donovan  said: 

"  I  got  a  warrant  in  my  desk  for  you,  Guth.  A 
friend  o'  mine  swore  it  out.  If  I  don't  stop  him,  it 
means  a  criminal  trial  where  you  won't  have  the 
chance  of  a  goat.  You  know  what  it's  for :  that  little 
girl  up  in  Fifty-second  Street.  The  only  way  I  can 
get  him  to  hold  off's  for  you  to  get  Reddy  Rawn  to 
do  what  you'd  ought  t'  got  him  to  do  long  ago.  If 
somebody  gets  hurt,  it  ain't  our  fault." 

§  10.  At  eight  p.  m.  in  the  shadowy  alley  near 
Forty-third  Street  and  Third  Avenue,  Patrolman 
Guth's  twisted  mouth  was  menacing  the  dark 
ness. 

"  He's  down  at  the  Forbes  factory  now,"  said 
Guth.  "  There's  sure  to  be  a  fight  there  to-night,  an' 
anybody  can  get  in.  It's  a  cinch." 

The  darkness  did  not  reply. 

u  Anyhow,  you  got  to,"  said  Guth.  "  The  old 
man's  crazy  mad.  He  says  it's  the  chair  for  yours  if 
you  fall  down  this  time.  Crab  Rotello's  got  worse. 
He  can't  live  the  night,  an'  the  old  man  says  he's 
goin'  to  have  you  railroaded  soon  as  Crab  cashes  in, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  357 

if  you  don't  do  what  he  says.  He  means  it,  too, 
Reddy." 

Out  of  the  darkness  came  the  answer: 

"  I'll  maybe  have  to  croak  this  guy." 

"  That's  up  to  you,"  said  Guth.  "  It'll  look  like 
some  strikers  done  it.  It's  his  own  fault  for  bein'  a 
fool.  What  in  hell  do  you  care,  anyway?  We'll 
look  out  for  you." 

"  All  right,"  said  the  darkness. 

"  Mind  you,"  Guth  repeated,  "  no  more  stallin' 
this  time.  If  you  don't  get  the  goods,  an'  get  'em 
to-night,  you're  a  dead  boy,  Reddy." 

There  was  an  instant  of  silence.  Then  the  dark 
ness  spoke  again : 

"  It  won't  be  me's  the  dead  one." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

§  I.  The  text  of  the  newspaper  article,  which  Luke 
read  carefully  while  he  dressed,  added  few  facts  to 
those  marshaled  in  its  headlines.  To  Luke  it  was 
evident  that  the  past  few  days  had  brought  the  strikers 
to  desperation.  Their  own  funds  were  gone,  and  they 
had  no  help  from  outside.  They  were  not  strong  in 
numbers,  and  many  of  them  were  women.  The  ranks 
of  the  men  had,  however,  been  swelled  to  a  formi 
dable  figure  by  unsought  additions  from  the  hundreds 
of  hooligans  that,  in  every  city,  are  attracted  to  seats 
of  industrial  war,  and  these  provided  an  element 
which  the  leaders  were  unable  to  control.  The  af 
fair  had  gone  the  usual  way:  a  picket  had  jeered  at 
a  non-union  worker;  two  policemen  attacked  the  of 
fending  picket;  the  crowd  ran  to  the  rescue,  and  a 
general  disturbance,  with  the  assault  on  the  mill,  was 
the  inevitable  result.  Now  there  was  no  telling 
to  what  extent  the  trouble  might  go. 

Luke  was  savagely  glad  that  physical  action  was 
imperative.  He  wanted  something  that  would  stop 
thought.  He  wanted  rest  from  thought:  from  the 
spiritual  strain,  from  the  yearning  for  Betty.  Again 

358 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  359 

and  again,  as  he  hurried  through  a  breakfast  forced 
upon  himself  only  by  the  knowledge  of  his  need,  he 
found  his  mind  playing  with  the  childish  idea  of  the 
carpenter  that  he  wanted  to  be,  tramping  the  country 
roads  from  casual  job  to  job.  He  might  well  come  to 
that.  Meanwhile,  it  was  good  to  have  this  chance  for 
a  fight. 

§  2.  Luke  drove  to  the  factory  in  a  taxicab  that  he 
insisted  should  be  open.  As  he  neared  his  destina 
tion  through  rows  of  grimy  buildings  and  vacant  lots 
in  which  goats  grazed  among  ash-heaps  and  tin  cans 
and  "  For  Sale  "  signs,  the  streets  began  to  look  as  if 
a  heavy  skirmish  had  been  fought  through  them. 
Knots  of  idle  sightseers  already  lined  the  uneven  side 
walks  and  pointed  to  the  relics  of  the  conflict;  at  cor 
ners  the  former  workers  were  gathered  in  low-speak 
ing  groups — shrunken  figures;  slouching  forms  in 
poor  clothing,  whose  business  was  the  making  of  bet 
ter  clothes  for  luckier  beings;  faces  angry  and  sullen, 
faces  savage,  debased,  hungry;  women's  faces  as  sex 
less  as  the  men's — and  everywhere,  furtive  and  sinis 
ter,  those  other  faces,  the  faces  most  to  be  feared,  of 
the  gathered  condors  of  the  underworld,  the  feeders 
on  economic  carrion,  who  had  slunk  here  from  the 
darkest  corners  of  Manhattan,  Brooklyn,  Jersey  City, 
rising  from  a  hundred  alleys  and  pot-houses,  and  cir- 


360  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

cling  toward  the  factory  as  birds  of  prey  come  from 
the  four  quarters  of  the  compass  toward  a  battlefield; 
he  saw  them  crouched  at  the  shadowy  thresholds  of 
tumble-down  dwellings,  leering  from  fetid  passage 
ways,  peering  from  the  swinging  doors  of  stinking 
saloons,  stealthy,  determined. 

Overhead  the  sky  was  clear  sapphire.  A  strong 
breeze  came  in  from  the  Sound,  laden  with  health. 
It  fanned  the  memories  of  yesterday  out  of  his  brain 
and  for  a  moment  made  the  present  seem  a  picture 
from  the  remote  past.  It  was  unreal :  he  felt  himself 
an  unimportant  spectator  of  some  unconvincing  play. 

Then,  rising  above  rows  of  rickety  houses,  the  mill 
came  into  sight,  blocking  the  street-end,  and  restored 
his  appreciation  of  the  imminent.  A  wrecked  coal- 
wagon  lay  horseless  in  the  middle  of  the  street  oppo 
site  a  bent  lamp-post,  the  coal  heaped  where  it  had 
fallen.  Battered  hats  were  in  the  gutter,  and  on  the 
pavement  was  a  coat,  torn  and  muddy.  No  smoke 
curled  to-day  from  the  chimney  of  the  mill's  engine- 
room,  and  in  front  of  its  shattered  main-door,  rudely 
repaired  by  unpainted  planks  of  fresh  pine,  two  po 
licemen  lounged,  facing  a  string  of  mute  pickets. 

Luke  passed  the  door  unmolested  and  entered  the 
office.  The  superintendent,  a  whiskered  man  named 
Whitaker,  was  there,  and  one  or  two  pasty  and 
frightened  clerks. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  361 

"  Mr.  Forbes  down  yet?  "  asked  Luke  briskly. 

"  No,  sir/'  said  Whitaker.  "  He  just  sent  word  he 
was  sick." 

"  Sick  ?    What's  the  matter  with  him  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  exactly,  Mr.  Huber.  It  was  Miss 
Forbes  telephoned,  and  she  said  he'd  had  a  kind  of 
fainting  fit  right  after  breakfast." 

Luke  sat  down  at  the  desk  and  called  up  the  Forbes 
house. 

"  Mr.  Forbes  there?  "  he  asked  of  the  maid  that 
answered  him. 

"  No,  sir.    Mr.  Forbes  is  in  bed." 

"111?" 

"  Not  very  well." 

"  Ask  Miss  Forbes  to  come  to  the  'phone.  This  is 
Mr.  Huber  talking.  I'm  at  the  factory,  and  I  must 
know  something  about  Mr.  Forbes'  condition." 

The  maid  assented,  but,  after  he  had  waited,  it  was 
again  she  that  spoke  to  him. 

"  Miss  Forbes  asks  you  please  to  excuse  her.  She's 
very  busy.  She  says  to  tell  you  Mr.  Forbes  was  a 
little  dizzy  and  had  to  lie  down.  He  thinks  he  can 
get  to  his  office  late  in  the  day." 

Luke  felt  the  mortification  that  it  was  patently  in 
tended  he  should  feel;  but  he  lost  no  time  over  it. 
He  turned  at  once  to  Whitaker  and  the  clerks,  and 
secured  from  them  what  verification  he  could  of  the 


362  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

newspaper's  story.  Then  he  sent  for  the  brawny, 
flannel-shirted  Breil  and  learned  what  remained  for 
him  to  know. 

"  You  think  there'll  be  more  trouble?  "  he  asked, 
after  he  had  sent  Whitaker  and  his  assistant  from  the 
room. 

"  Sure  there  will,"  said  Breil  cheerfully,  "  but  not 
before  to-night." 

"  When'll  the  soldiers  get  here?" 

'  'Long  about  noon,  I  guess." 

"  How  many  police  have  they  given  us?  " 

"  Half  a  dozen.    I  couldn't  beg  more." 

"  Better  send  some  of  them  out  to  have  that  coal 
cleared  away." 

"  I  tried  to,  but  they  said  it  wasn't  their  duty,  an'  I 
couldn't  get  any  satisfaction  at  City  Hall.  You  know 
how  these  cops  are." 

"  Couldn't  you  have  a  detail  of  your  own  men  do 
it?" 

"  I'd  like  to  first-rate;  but  it'd  mean  a  fight,  an'  we 
don't  want  to  put  ourselves  in  the  position,  to  the 
public,  of  courtin'  that.  Mr.  Forbes  said  Satur 
day " 

"  He  was  right.  How  many  men  have  you  in  good 
shape?" 

"  Seventy-two.  I'd  send  for  more,  but  they're  on  a 
job  at  Hazleton." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  363 

"  Will  City  Hall  send  more  police  if  there's 
trouble?" 

"  Not  till  they  can't  help  doin'  it." 

The  hours  passed  slowly.  Luke  made  the  rounds 
of  the  mill  as  the  commander  of  a  fortress  inspects  it 
before  an  attack.  He  saw  that  the  strike-breakers,  an 
anxious  lot  of  men,  were  stationed  at  the  vulnerable 
places,  and  he  talked  again  with  Breil. 

Forbes  did  not  appear,  and  Luke  was  too  proud  to 
try  a  second  time  to  question  Betty  about  him;  but 
reporters  came  and  sent  in  urgent  requests  for  a  state 
ment  from  the  company.  Luke  refused  to  see  them. 
It  was  his  turn  to  refuse  the  newspapers. 

"  Better  feed  'em  a  little  pap,"  Breil  advised. 

"  I  won't  so  much  as  look  at  them,"  said  Luke. 

"  They'll  knock  us  if  you  don't." 

"  That  can't  hurt  us.  I  won't  see  them  and  you're 
not  to  talk  to  them  either,  Breil." 

He  began  to  chafe  under  the  delay.  He  made  the 
rounds  of  the  mill  again  and  smoked  incessantly  at 
cigars  that  he  found  in  a  box  in  Forbes's  desk.  He 
bolted  a  cold  lunch  sent  in  at  noon,  and  he  wondered 
why  the  soldiers  were  late. 

The  soldiers  came  at  two  o'clock.  Out  in  the 
street  there  were  some  derisive  shouts,  and  then  the 
regular  tramp  of  marching  feet.  Luke  hurried  to  an 
office  above  Forbes's.  a  room  furnished  with  a  small 


364  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

desk  at  one  side,  a  large  table  in  the  center,  and  a  few 
chairs,  and  there,  from  a  window,  saw  the  column  of 
men  in  khaki,  advancing  four  abreast,  down  the  street. 

"  They're  nothing  but  a  lot  of  boys,"  he  said  as, 
when  they  drew  nearer,  he  looked  at  their  young 
faces.  "  It's  a  shame  to  send  a  lot  of  kids  like  that 
into — a  mix-up  of  this  kind." 

He  received  the  Captain  and  the  first-lieutenant  in 
the  main  office.  The  Captain  had  taken  off  his  broad- 
brimmed  service  hat  and  was  mopping  his  face  with  a 
blue  bandana  handkerchief. 

"  Phew !  "  he  said.  "  This  looks  as  if  it  was  goin' 
to  be  the  real  thing !  " 

"  It  is  the  real  thing,"  said  Luke. 
1  You  haven't  got  a  drink  handy,   have  you?" 
asked  the  Captain.     He  was  an  olive-complexioned 
young  man  of  twenty-two  or  -three  with  a  girlish 
mouth  and  bright  black  eyes. 

Luke  produced  a  bottle  and  glasses,  and  the  Cap 
tain  drank.  He  spoke  in  the  high  tone  of  excitement 
as  he  rattled  on : 

"  Somebody  threw  a  brick  at  us  just  up  here.  Did 
you  see  'em?  It  near  cracked  Sergeant  Schmidt's 
coco.  Poor  old  Schmidt;  he  was  scared  yellow, 
wasn't  he,  Terry?  " 

Terry  was  the  lieutenant,  a  raw  Irish  lad  with  the 
face  of  a  fighter. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  365 

"  You  bet,"  said  he. 

Luke  drew  the  Captain  aside. 

"  You  may  as  well  understand  at  once,"  said  he, 
"  that  this  isn't  any  picnic.  You've  been  sent  here  to 
protect  our  property,  and  you  may  have  a  hot  time 
doing  it.  We  have  seventy-two  strike-breakers  here 
under  Mr.  Breil;  the  superintendent;  one  or  two 
clerks;  and  five  foremen  who've  remained  loyal  to  the 
company.  That,  with  me,  makes  up  the  inside  force. 
There's  half  a  dozen  police,  too.  What  I  want  you  to 
do  is  to  draw  a  cordon  of  your  men  along  the  front 
of  the  building.  Stand  them  on  the  pavement. 
Breil's  men'll  watch  the  back.  Half  your  people  had 
better  go  on  duty  now  and  be  relieved  by  the  other 
half  at  five  o'clock.  But  from  seven  on,  we'll  need 
your  whole  company  on  the  job." 

The  Captain  looked  serious  and  worried. 

"  You  think  there'll  be  real  trouble  to-night?  " 

"  I  shouldn't  be  a  bit  surprised,  especially  as  I  see 
the  Governor's  sent  us  just  enough  of  you  fellows  to 
excite  a  mob  and  yet  be  powerless  against  it.  What 
were  your  instructions  from  up  top  ?  " 

"  I  was  to  use  my  own  discretion." 

Luke  looked  at  the  young  man  and  smiled  at  the 
idea  of  intrusting  men's  lives  to  such  discretion. 

"  Well,  the  main  thing  is  not  to  lose  your  head," 
said  Luke. 


366  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

"They'll  outnumber  us?" 

"  If  they  attacked,  yes — undoubtedly." 

The  Captain  returned  to  the  whiskey  bottle. 

"  And  we'd  be  powerless,  unless "  He  hesi 
tated. 

"  Unless  you  fired,"  Luke  concluded  for  him. 

They  looked  at  each  other,  the  man  and  the  boy. 

"  You  mustn't  fire,"  said  Luke. 

"  No,"  said  the  boy. 

"  Unless  you  have  to,"  said  the  man.    .    .    . 

The  afternoon  dragged  by.  Luke  gave  up  all  hope 
of  Forbes  and  spent  most  of  the  time  in  the  upper 
office,  looking  at  the  soldiers  stationed  in  front  of 
the  building  and  at  the  groups  of  men  staring  at  the 
soldiers.  It  seemed  to  Luke  that  the  numbers  of  the 
staring  men  were  increasing.  .  .  . 

§  3.  The  night  was  dark.  The  purple  arc-lamp 
that  burned  directly  in  front  of  the  main  entrance  to 
the  factory  flared  vividly  upon  a  circle  of  the  street 
beneath  it,  but  beyond  this  circle,  which  was  long 
empty,  one  could  scarcely  see,  one  could  rather  only 
feel,  the  presence  of  a  slowly  gathering,  silent  crowd. 

In  the  main  office,  Luke  was  again  consulting  with 
the  Captain,  Breil,  and  a  policeman.  The  policeman, 
as  if  acting  under  instructions,  had  sneered  at  the  idea 
of  further  trouble  so  long  as  the  crowd  was  unmo- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  367 

lested,  and  Luke  would  not  ask  again  for  aid  from 
City  Hall.  His  lieutenants  were  standing  about  the 
room  in  attitudes  of  uncertainty.  All  were  agreed 
against  precipitating  a  fight  by  attempts  to  disperse 
the  enemy. 

The  Captain  drew  up  his  boyish  form. 

"  My  men "  he  began. 

"  Your  kids/'  corrected  Breil. 

"  We're  all  right,  anyhow,"  the  Captain  lamely 
concluded,  his  cheeks  hot  under  this  indignity. 

Raucous  cries  came  now  and  then  from  the  street. 

"  You've  got  enough  to  take  care  of  with  your 
own  affairs,"  said  Luke.  He  turned  to  the  policeman. 
u  Are  there  many  in  that  crowd  out  there  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Not  many,"  said  the  policeman,  "  but  I  think 
there's  more  comin' !  " 

Still  smarting  under  Breil's  rebuke,  the  Captain 
felt  some  show  of  his  bravery  to  be  a  duty  to  the 
organization  to  which  he  belonged. 

"  We  can  handle  'em  all  right,"  he  said,  "  however 
many  there  are.  They're  mostly  nothin'  but  foreign 
ers,  anyhow." 

Luke  wanted  above  all  to  preserve  harmony  in  his 
ranks,  but  an  imp  of  perversity  whipped  his  tongue. 

"What's  your  name?"  he  asked  the  Captain. 

"  Antonio  Facciolati,"  said  the  Captain,  "  but  I'm 
a  naturalized  American  citizen." 


368  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Luke  patted  his  shoulder. 

"  That's  all  right,"  he  said  reassuringly.  "  What 
have  your  men  got  in  their  guns,  Captain?  Blank 
cartridges?  " 

"  Not  much,"  said  the  Captain  boldly:  "  ball." 

"  Good,"  Luke  smiled.  "  But  don't  use  it.  Butts 
are  best  for  this  work." 

He  decided  that  Forbes,  well  or  ill,  ought  to  know 
how  things  were  going.  He  bent  to  the  telephone, 
placing  the  receiver  to  his  ear. 

There  was  no  answer.  He  rattled  the  hook  im 
patiently. 

"What's  the  matter  with  this  'phone?"  he 
growled. 

He  rattled  the  hook  again,  but  could  get  no  reply. 

Breil  left  the  room.     Presently  he  returned. 

"  I've  tried  the  one  in  the  hall,"  he  said, 
"  and  the  one  in  the  cloth-room.  The  wires  are 
cut." 

For  a  moment  nobody  spoke.  Facciolati's  hand 
crept  to  his  sword-hilt,  and  the  sword  clattered. 
From  somewhere  far  up  the  street  came  a  choral 
murmur  of  voices : 

"  //tf//eyloolyah,  I'm  a  bum — bum  !" 

Breil  stepped  to  the  window. 
"  That's  them.    That's  the  others.    They're  com- 
in',"  he  said. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  369 

I 

§  4.  The  men  ran  to  their  posts.  Luke  climbed  to 
the  upper  office  and  went  to  its  window. 

They  were  coming  indeed.  They  were  there, 
vividly  from  the  circle  of  light  beneath  him,  vaguely 
to  the  walls  of  the  tumbledown  dwellings  across  the 
street.  At  his  feet  was  a  line  of  khaki-clad  militiamen, 
standing  at  ease  beside  their  magazine-rifles,  along  the 
curb;  beyond  them  a  few  yards  of  open  street,  and 
then  what  at  first  looked  to  Luke  like  a  field  of  wheat 
under  a  high  gale,  gigantic  wheat,  black  of  stalk  and 
white  of  head,  tossing  in  the  wind:  the  shoving,  sway 
ing  bodies,  the  gesticulating  arms,  the  threatening 
faces  of  the  mob. 

They  had  come  to  complete  the  work  of  the  previ 
ous  night.  His  startled  eyes  could  pick  out  no  one 
individual,  his  ears  could  select  no  single  word;  but  he 
could  see  leaders,  who  had  lost  their  leadership,  mak 
ing  gestures  of  despair;  men,  who  had  seized  license, 
waving  fists  and  shaking  sticks ;  could  hear  a  turmoil 
of  cries  and  curses.  The  whole  impression  was 
blurred  and  general;  yet,  as  he  looked,  the  wheat- 
field  changed  to  a  roaring  sea,  the  black  pitching  and 
tossing  of  a  terrible  tide  ever  mounting  nearer, 
nearer  to  the  soldiers  drawn  up  in  front  of  the  broken 
factory  door. 

The  thought  mastered  him:  this  was  his  property 
which  only  that  frail  door  separated  from  them — 


370  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

that  frail  door  and  those  frightened  boys  in  khaki. 
They  were  going  to  destroy  his  property — his ! 

A  second  street-lamp,  farther  up  the  way,  lighted 
the  rear  of  the  crowd,  and  into  the  circle  of  its  illumi 
nation  Luke  saw  running  a  motor-car.  He  saw  the 
mob  scatter,  the  car  stop,  the  crowd  close  around  it. 
He  heard  more  distant  shouts  above  the  shouts  that 
were  nearer. 

The  broken  section  of  the  crowd  swayed,  hesitated, 
attacked  the  car.  For  an  instant,  the  arms  of  the 
chauffeur  beat  at  the  man  that  climbed  to  his  seat,  and 
then  the  chauffeur  was  pulled  to  the  ground.  Luke 
strained  his  eyes  to  see  if  the  car  were  familiar  to  him. 
It  was.  There  was  a  woman  in  it :  its  only  occupant. 
It  was  the  Forbes  car,  and  the  woman  must  be  Betty. 

§  5.  Luke  circled  the  center  table  and  ran  down 
the  steps  three  at  a  time.  He  nearly  fell  upon  the 
huge  form  of  Breil,  coatless,  a  revolver  in  his  hand, 
hurtling  from  one  group  of  his  forces  to  another. 
Luke  pushed  him  away. 

"  Where  are  you  going?"  cried  Breil. 

Luke  did  not  answer.    He  was  tugging  at  the  door. 

Breil's  heavy  hand  fell  on  Luke's  arm. 

"Here!  Stop  that!"  he  bellowed.  "Where 
d'you  think  you're  goin'  ?  " 

"  Get  away !  "  shouted  Luke.    "  I'm  going  out." 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  371 

The  door  leaped  open.  The  howls  of  the  mob 
beat  upon  the  two  men's  faces. 

Breil  thrust  his  lips  against  Luke's  ear. 

"  Are  you  crazy?  "  he  yelled. 

"Yes!"  said  Luke. 

He  slipped  through  the  door. 

Facciolati  was  there,  white-faced,  standing  behind 
his  soldiers. 

Luke  made  an  egress  through  the  ranks  by  shoving 
away  a  soldier  with  either  hand. 

"You're  not  going  out  there?"  cried  the  Cap 
tain.  "  They'll  kill  you  !" 

Luke  jumped  to  the  curb. 

"  I  don't  care !  "  he  answered. 

He  was  crazy,  and  he  didn't  care  whether  he  was 
killed  or  not.  Of  these  two  things  he  was  certain. 
He  was  mad  from  the  torments  of  his  conflict  be 
tween  logic  and  desire,  and  death  would  be  an  easy 
solution — perhaps  it  was  the  only  one.  It  flashed 
upon  him  that  such  a  solution  might  be  cowardly; 
but  the  next  instant  he  had  but  one  impulse;  he  was 
going  to  save  Betty,  and  that  was  enough.  A  new 
madness,  the  madness  of  what  seemed  an  absolutely 
unselfish  act,  of  an  act  that  intoxicated  him  with  its 
unselfishness,  gave  him  the  strength  of  ten  and  fired 
a  berserker  rage  in  his  breast,  hurled  him  forward 
like  a  rock  from  a  ballista.  He  was  going  to  save 


372  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Betty,  and  he  was  a  hundred  yards  away  from  her  in 
the  midst  of  a  mob  that  hated  him. 

The  ocean  of  raging  men  closed  over  his  head;  its 
pandemonium  smashed  his  ear-drums;  but  he  was 
deep  in  the  crowd  before  any  of  its  members  realized 
whence  he  had  come.  He  was  clearing  a  way,  strik 
ing,  kicking,  biting,  shouting  he  knew  not  what — 
shrill  oaths  and  guttural  threats — thrusting  their 
heavy  bodies  from  side  to  side.  He  felt  their  hot 
breath,  encountered  their  resisting  arms  and  legs, 
smelled  the  sweat  of  them. 

"  Stop  him !  "  yelled  somebody.  "  He  came  out 
of  the  factory!  " 

He  saw  a  host  of  faces  about  him,  dark  with  anger; 
eyes  big  with  hunger  and  hate.  He  felt  blows  that 
could  not  hurt  him,  felt  his  own  fists  sink  into  flabby 
bellies,  crack  upon  stout  skulls. 

"The  scab!" 

A  hand  fell  across  his  mouth,  and  he  used  his  teeth 
like  a  were-wolf ;  he  tasted  the  smooth  salt  blood  be 
fore  it  began  to  trickle  down  his  jowl.  A  second 
hand  snatched  at  his  collar,  another  grabbed  his  arm. 
He  pulled  frenziedly,  he  struck  out  blindly,  he  threw 
all  his  weight  far  forward.  He  knew  that  his  coat 
ripped;  he  twisted  his  arm  free,  lowered  his  head 
and  dodged  forward,  men  sprawling  before  him.  He 
had  gained  the  motor-car. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  373 

Betty  was  standing  up  in  the  tonneau.  Her  hands 
were  clasped  before  her  breast,  her  face  was  set.  She 
saw  him  falling  toward  her. 

Luke  jumped  beside  her,  his  coat  gone,  his  shirt 
torn,  his  face  bleeding  from  a  cut  above  the  right  eye, 
his  hair  matted  over  his  forehead.  She  did  not  know 
him  as  he  seized  her  roughly  and  picked  her  up  in  his 
arms;  but,  in  the  moment  that  he  balanced  on  the 
edge  of  the  car,  with  the  light  full  in  his  face,  the 
crowd  knew  him. 

"  That's  him !    That's  Huber !  "  they  shrieked. 

He  jumped  with  her  directly  back  into  the 
crowd. 

While  he  was  still  in  the  air,  he  thought  that  was 
the  worst  thing  to  have  done.  Without  him,  she 
might  have  had  some  chance;  with  him  she  would 
have  almost  no  chance  at  all.  But  it  was  too  late 
now;  he  could  only  fight  until  he  could  fight  no  more, 
and  then  they  must  die  together.  .  .  . 

§  6.  They  did  not  die.  Somebody,  as  the  mob 
laid  hold  of  them,  broke  through  its  ranks — some 
body  with  still  some  shred  of  authority  left  him. 

"  Get  back,  you  fools !  Get  back !  Do  you  want 
to  kill  the  woman?  " 

It  was  that  organizer  of  the  strikers  whom  Luke 
had  seen  in  Forbes's  office  when  the  employees  made 


374  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

their  last  appeal  to  Forbes.  It  was  the  man  Forbes 
had  ignored. 

With  infinite  slowness,  against  infinite  opposition, 
the  rescuer  made  way  for  them.  Grumbling,  growl 
ing,  threatening,  the  crowd  fell  back.  It  menaced,  it 
cursed,  it  hurled  ribald  jokes;  but  it  fell  back  before 
the  leader  that  it  no  longer  obeyed  in  anything  else, 
until  he,  followed  by  Luke  with  Betty  in  his  arms, 
came  to  the  line  of  soldiers  at  the  battered  factory 
door. 

Luke  swayed  a  little.  Facciolati  stepped  up  and 
tried  to  steady  him,  but  he  tossed  Facciolati  away. 
Luke  turned  to  the  organizer. 

"  Won't  you  come  inside  ?"  he  panted. 

The  man  shook  his  head. 

"  I'm — I  can't  tell  you  how  much  I  owe  you  for 
this,"  said  Luke. 

"  Oh,  you  go  to  Hell,"  said  the  man. 

§  7.  Inside  the  factory,  Luke  would  not  waste  a 
glance  on  the  strike-breakers  that  gathered,  open- 
mouthed,  around  him. 

"  Get  away,"  he  ordered.  "  I'm  taking  her  to 
the  upper  office.  Nobody  is  to  disturb  her  there. 
You  understand?  Nobody." 

§  8.  During    all    that    frightful    progress    back 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  375 

through  the  mob,  she  had  lain  in  his  arms  silent,  her 
eyes  closed.  Only  now,  when  he  brought  her  to  the 
upper  office,  banged  the  door  behind  them  and  put 
her  in  an  arm-chair,  which  he  kicked  the  length  of  the 
room  in  order  to  place  her  as  far  as  might  be  from 
the  window,  did  she  look  at  him. 

"  I  didn't  faint,"  she  said.  "  I  only  pretended.  I 
thought  that  was  safest." 

He  had  dropped  to  his  knees  beside  her  and  had 
begun  to  chafe  her  hands.  He  was  unconscious  of 
the  renewed  din  outside.  Thus  alone  with  her,  he 
was  thinking  only  how  much  he  wanted  her. 

She  was  leaning  far  back  in  the  chair.  The  rays  of 
the  street-lamp  were  the  only  light  in  the  room,  and 
they  made  her  face  seem  as  peaceful  as  the  faces  of 
the  dead.  When  she  opened  her  eyes,  her  eyes  were 
luminous. 

"  You're  safe,"  she  continued.  "  You're  safe, 
aren't  you?" 

He  kissed  her  hand  hotly. 

"  You !  "  he  said.    "  I'm  all  right.    But  you  ?  " 

She  stood  up,  smiling. 

"  Quite." 

He  rose  also. 

"  The  brutes!  the  beasts!  I'd  like  to— I'll  do  it, 
too !  " 

He  had  stepped  into  the  light.    His  shirt  was  torn, 


376  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

his  hair  dank.  Blood  caked  over  the  cut  on  his  fore 
head,  and  his  jaws  were  red  with  the  blood  of  the 
man  whose  hand  he  had  bitten. 

"Luke!    You  are  hurt!" 

She  came  toward  him. 

"  No,  I'm  not,"  he  persisted,  but  he  let  her  fingers 
touch  the  wound  on  his  head,  and  her  fingers  thrilled 
him. 

"  Luke,"  she  said,  when  she  had  convinced  her 
self  that  the  cut  was  superficial,  u  I'm  glad  it  was 
you." 

"  That  came  for  you?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  I  didn't  do  much.  I  was  nearly  the  death  of  you. 
For  a  minute  I  thought  it  was  death.  That  other 
fellow's  the  one  you  have  to  thank." 

"  Anyhow,  I  thank  you."    She  pressed  his  hand. 

A  shout  came  from  the  mob.  It  brought  him  back 
to  material  concerns. 

"  How  did  you  come  to  this  part  of  town?  " 

She  had  complete  command  of  herself. 

"  Can't  you  guess?  "  she  asked. 

Her  eyes  were  unafraid. 

"  Don't  say  you  came  on  my  account." 

"  But  I  did;  I  did.  Father's  too  ill  to  ask  ques 
tions.  It  was  a  slight  heart  attack,  the  doctor  said: 
he's  been  so  worried  lately,  Father  has,  and  so  over- 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  377 

worked.  But  I  wanted  to  know,  and  I  tried  to  tele 
phone  here,  but  they  said  the  connection  was  broken. 
Then  I  was  sorry  for  not  answering  that  call  you 
made  before,  and  when  they  said  you  hadn't  got  back 
to  the  Arapahoe,  I  was  afraid.  So  I  told  Father  I 
was  going  to  Mr.  Nicholson's  mission — he  must  have 
thought  me  dreadfully  unkind  to  leave  him  for  that — 
and  I  had  James  drive  me — Oh!  "  she  broke  off:  "  I 
wonder  if  he's  hurt?  " 

"  The  chauffeur?"  Luke  remembered.  "I  saw 
him  just  as  I  got  to  the  car,"  he  chuckled.  "  He'd 
reached  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd  and  was  running 
for  dear  life.  I  don't  think  they'll  catch  him." 

The  noise  of  the  mob  would  grow  from  a  hoarse 
mutter  to  a  loud  howl  and  then  sink  to  a  low  murmur. 

"  Luke,"  she  said,  "  it  was  you  rescued  me." 

He  listened  to  the  noise. 

"  Then  I've  probably  only  rescued  you  from  the 
frying-pan  to  dump  you  into  the  fire.  I  wish  I'd  had 
the  sense  to  take  you  in  the  opposite  direction.  I 
don't  know  what  I  could  have  been  thinking  of.  Of 
course,  they'll  simply  have  to  send  more  police  soon 
and  attack  these  fellows  from  the  rear:  the  soldiers 
haven't  the  right  to  drive  away  the  crowd,  and  Breil's 
men  daren't  leave  the  building.  But  I  do  wish  I 
hadn't  brought  you  here !  " 

"  You've  brought  me  where  you  are,"  said  Betty. 


378  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Her  eyes  were  wide,  her  lips  parted.  Luke's  breath 
caught  in  his  throat. 

"  Betty,"  he  said,  "  do  you  mean "' 

She  did  not  quail. 

"  I  mean  I  love  you." 

u  What?"  He  drew  back,  afraid  of  her,  afraid 
of  himself. 

"  I  know  you  weren't  yourself,"  she  said.  "  I 
know  how  all  this  trouble  has  upset  you.  I  know  you 
didn't  mean  those  things." 

The  reversal  was  too  much  for  him.  He  leaned 
against  the  table  and  burst  into  laughter.  An  instant 
ago  the  roar  of  the  crowd  had  seemed  miles  away, 
had  seemed  no  more  than  any  recurrent  noise  of 
city  life.  They  two,  Betty  and  he,  had  seemed  to 
him  set  apart  from  it  all,  remote  from  it,  together. 
Now 

"  Luke !  "  she  was  crying. 

A  picture  drifted  into  his  mind.  It  was  a  picture 
of  pine  trees  and  the  sun  in  a  blue  sky  full  of  fleecy 
clouds  and  a  long  white  road  winding,  dusty  and  care 
free,  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

"  Luke " 

He  could  not  hear  her  now.  He  saw  terror  in  her 
face,  but  the  noise  from  the  street  rose,  rattled  at  the 
window-pane,  and  engulfed  her  words. 

A  new  cry  rang  out  from  the  mob — a  cry  so  sharp 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  379 

and  loud  that  both  the  persons  in  the  room  forgot 
themselves  and  ran  to  the  window.  They  looked  out 
upon  the  tossing  faces  below. 

The  crowd  had  turned.  It  was  elbowing,  straining 
necks,  rising  on  tiptoe,  gazing  backward. 

Far  back  there  something  dark  fluttered  in  the 
night  air.  It  was  seized  and  passed  from  hand  to 
hand.  It  reached  the  circle  of  light  and  waved  high 
above  the  center  of  the  crowd,  a  banner  of  crimson, 
tossing  like  a  beacon  over  the  swarm  of  black  heads, 
defiant,  audacious :  the  Red  Flag. 

And  then  came  a  new  sound.  It  began  In  the  heart 
of  the  mob  and  spread  outwards  like  circles  in  water 
broken  by  a  dropped  stone.  It  did  not  stop  the  other 
noises;  it  assimilated  them.  It  was  low,  but  strong; 
it  seemed  to  contain  all  the  history  of  past  wrongs, 
all  the  arsenal  of  present  determination;  but  it  was 
touched  with  far  hopes  and  freighted  with  tremen 
dous  dreams.  It  was  a  chant,  a  song,  a  hymn,  and  all 
the  crowd  was  singing  it  with  the  strength  of  a 
thousand  pair  of  lungs. 

"What's  that?"  asked  Luke,  although  he  ex 
pected  no  answer. 

But  the  girl  gave  him  one. 

"  It's  a  thing  called  '  The  International,'  "  she 
said,  her  voice  trembling.  "  I  heard  it  once  in  Paris. 
It's  a  terrible  song." 


380  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

Luke's  eyes  were  caught  by  a  movement  at  the 
window  of  one  of  the  tumbledown  dwellings  across 
the  street.  He  saw  the  window  open  and  a  frowsy 
woman  lean  out.  She  held  something  white  in  her 
hands.  She  raised  it,  then  dashed  its  contents  toward 
the  nearest  soldier.  The  shot  fell  short,  and  two  men 
in  the  crowd  were  drenched. 

The  hymn  ended  in  a  shriek.  The  mob  believed 
that  the  insult  had  come  from  the  factory  and  in 
stantly  resolved  itself  into  a  fuming  whirlpool.  Luke 
saw  tossed  aside  people  who  were  evidently  strike- 
leaders  frantically  trying  to  quiet  their  one-time  fol 
lowers,  but  he  did  not  guess  the  purport  of  the  new 
commotion  in  the  seething  mass.  Then  he  saw  some 
thing  that  made  him  jerk  Betty  away  from  the  win 
dow  and  fling  her  against  the  wall  at  its  side. 

There  was  a  crash — a  pause — a  tinkling.  A  gust  of 
air,  fresh  and  cool,  invaded  the  room.  A  missile  had 
broken  the  window.  A  whole  volley  followed,  smash 
ing  more  glass  and  battering  at  the  factory  walls. 
The  mob  was  using  the  coals  from  the  dismantled 
wagon  that  Luke  had  noticed  in  the  street  hours  ago. 

Somebody  had  been  pounding  unheard  at  the  office- 
door.  Luke  saw  the  door  bend  and  ran  to  it.  He 
flung  it  wide. 

Breil  stood  there,  his  revolver  in  his  hand. 

"  I've  got  to   disturb  you "  he  began,   and, 


THE     MOB     WAS     USING    THE    COAL     FROM     THE    DISMANTLED 

WAGON 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  381 

though  he  shouted,  his  voice  did  not  reach  to  where 
Betty  stood  against  the  wall. 

"  That's  all  right,"  called  Luke.  "  I've  been  a 
fool  and  a  coward  to  stay  here.  Give  me  that  gun." 

He  wrenched  the  weapon  from  Breil's  resisting 
hand.  He  leaped  to  Betty  and  slipped  the  revolver  to 
her. 

"  Got  to  go  downstairs,"  he  cried  to  her,  for  the 
broken  window  let  in  a  roar  that  made  ordinary 
speaking  tones  futile.  "Bolt  the  door  after  us! 
You'll  be  safe !  We'll  fall  back  to  the  stairs,  if  we 
have  to  fall  back.  Good-bye !  " 

He  would  not  look  back.  His  last  sight  of  her  was 
of  a  woman  standing  erect,  alert,  comprehending,  the 
revolver  shining  in  her  hand.  Then,  with  the  follow 
ing  Breil  calling  out  that  he  must  go  to  his  own  men 
at  the  rear,  Luke  ran  down  the  stairs,  opened  the 
main  door  and,  leaving  it  gaping  behind  him, 
plunged  outside. 

§  9.  Coherent  purpose  he  had  none.  All  that  he 
realized  was  this:  here  was  a  struggle;  here  was  a 
final  endeavor  to  destroy  his  property,  which,  how 
ever  endangered  by  the  trust,  was  almost  his  sole 
means  of  support.  There  would  be  no  more  chance 
given  him  for  delay;  there  would  be  no  further  help 
from  the  police — the  half-dozen  sent  that  morning 


382  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

had  disappeared — until  help  was  too  late;  there  was 
only  the  boyish  soldiery.  He  would  go  to  them,  and 
he  would  fight. 

As  he  emerged  upon  the  street,  he  saw  the  circle  of 
light  empty  of  the  human  mass  that  had  lately  swirled 
there.  A  resounding  cacophony  from  the  darkness, 
and  dimly  perceived  objects  moving  a  hundred  yards 
and  more  away,  told  him  that  the  rioters  had  with 
drawn  to  the  upturned  coal  wagon.  At  the  moment 
of  understanding  this,  he  heard  a  rending  staccato 
noise. 

The  frightened  Facciolati  heard  it,  too.  He  was 
standing  on  the  pavement  by  the  door  and  had  drawn 
up  his  men  in  a  closer  column  before  him.  His  bared 
sword  was  in  his  right  hand. 

"What's  that?"  asked  Luke. 

u  It's  the  tongue  of  that  coal  wagon,"  gasped  the 
Captain,  "  they're  rippin'  it  off." 

"  What?    For  a  battering-ram?    For  this  door?  " 

The  Italian  nodded. 

"  Yes.  I  heard  someone  yell  for  them  to  do  it. 
Then  they  all  ran  over  there." 

A  terrible  stillness  fell.  Behind  the  curtain  of  the 
night,  the  mob  only  hummed  and  shuffled  its  feet. 

"Well?"  asked  Luke. 

His  eyes  pierced  Facciolati's.  His  voice  was  preg 
nant  with  meaning. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  383 

"  What  had  I  better  do?  "  faltered  the  Captain. 

Before  Luke  could  reply,  a  strident  yell  came  from 
the  invisible  ranks  of  the  mob : 

"  Now  then :  come  on !    Burn  their  damned  shop  1  " 

A  thousand  voices  echoed: 

"  Burn  it !    Burn  it  down !  " 

The  Captain  turned  to  Luke. 

"  You've  got  to  stop  them,"  said  Luke. 

The  din  increased. 

"O  my  God!"  said  Facciolati. 

In  Luke  blazed  up  all  the  furnace  of  battle.  He 
gripped  the  Captain's  collar  and  shook  the  man  as  if 
he  were  a  frightened,  disobedient  child. 

"  Give  the  order  1  "  he  commanded.  He  hated 
this  boy. 

In  a  shrill,  hysterical  voice  that  cut  the  rising  noise 
of  the  mob,  Facciolati  gave  the  preliminary  order, 
and  the  rows  of  lads  in  khaki,  standing  on  the  curb, 
raised  their  black-blue  rifles  to  their  shoulders. 

"We  won't  shoot!"  he  called  into  Luke's  ear. 
"  We'll  only  frighten 'em !" 

"  Burn  it "  From  the  street  the  cries  were 

merged  into  a  wordless  roar.  There  was  the  wild 
rush  of  two  thousand  feet,  and  into  the  light  burst  the 
mob  again :  a  long  trotting  column  with  the  Red  Flag 
swaying  overhead,  and  in  the  midst  five  or  six  men 
bearing  the  wagon-tongue  leveled  like  a  lance. 


384  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

A  veil  of  crimson  seemed  to  flutter  before  Luke's 
eyes — the  eyes  of  the  man  that  had  counseled  caution 
and  the  use  of  only  the  butts  of  rifles.  He  did  not 
think,  he  could  only  feel — only  feel  that  here  at  last 
was  the  chance,  here  the  unavoidable  need  of  action 
that  had  the  splendid  conclusiveness  of  brutality. 
This  was  man's  work.  This  was  no  rescuing  of  a 
girl:  it  was  war.  The  world  had  meshed  him  in  a 
net  of  intellectual  doubts  and  quibbles :  here  was  his 
moment  to  cut  the  net,  and  to  cut  his  way  to  freedom, 
to  take  vengeance  on  the  world. 

That  and  something  more.  Betty  was  in  danger 
anrl  the  property  that  was  partly  his,  that  in  part  he 
owned  and  had  bought.  But  above  all  this,  riding  it 
all,  goading  it,  spurning  it,  mad  with  its  mastery, 
the  blood-lust,  the  Sense  of  Power,  the  dizzy  knowl 
edge  that  he  could  kill. 

The  mob  was  almost  upon  them.  It  was  a  tidal 
wave. 

"Now!"  shouted  Luke  to  the  Italian. 

But  the  Captain  caught  his  hand.  He  gabbled  the 
nothings  of  panic.  Luke  threw  the  boy  to  the  pave 
ment.  With  all  the  breath  in  his  body  he  vociferated : 

"Pint" 

§  10.  Hell  belched  its  flames:  a  thunder-clap,  a 
thunder-cloud  knifed  by  red  flashes  of  lightning. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  385 

Luke  felt  his  head  bashed  against  the  wall  of  the 
factory.  He  was  choking  in  a  cloud  of  smoke.  He 
could  see  nothing,  but  once  he  thought  he  heard  the 
crack  of  other  shots  from  somewhere  above. 

Then  he  felt  his  knees  clutched.  He  felt  a  pawing 
at  his  elbow;  and  presently  he  heard  the  chattering 
voice  of  Facciolati  screaming  against  his  cheek: 

"  Why  in  Hell  did  you  do  that?  How  in  Hell  did 
you  dare? — Don't  you  know  what  you  might  have 
done?  Who's  in  command  here?" 

"  Shut  up,"  bellowed  Luke,  "  or  I'll  show  you 
who's  in  command."  He  tried  vainly  to  see  through 
the  smoke.  "  Take  your  hands  off  me  1  "  < 

It  was  as  if  he  were  in  the  crater  of  an  erupting  vol 
cano.  The  reverberation  split  his  head,  and  through 
it  came  shrieks,  groans,  curses,  and  then,  as  the  smoke 
slowly  lifted,  the  pound  of  two  thousand  feet  on  the 
paving-stones,  while,  with  the  Red  Flag  sagging  to 
and  fro  like  a  wounded  eagle  above  it,  the  mob  fled 
pell-mell  up  the  street. 

But  the  Captain  had  not  heeded  Luke's  warning. 

"  Now  they'll  be  back !  "  he  was  wailing.  "  We'll 
all  be  goners  now.  Why  did  you  give  that  order? 
Why  didn't  you  let  me  change  it? — I'd  instructed 
the  men  to  fire  over  their  heads — An'  you  didn't  let 
me  change  it — An'  of  course  they  did  fire  over 
their  heads — an'  nobody's  hurt — Do  you  know  what 


386  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

that  means?     They'll  be  back  and  kill  all  of  us!  " 

It  was  impossible  for  Luke  to  believe.  Then,  not 
fear,  but  the  rage  of  thwarted  blood-lust  sent  out  his 
clawing  hands. 

"You  did  that?" 

He  caught  Facciolati  under  the  arm-pits  and  raised 
him  clear  of  the  ground. 

"  You " 

A  new  sound  interrupted  him.  At  first  he  thought 
that  the  mob  had  wheeled  a  machine-gun  into  the 
street  and  turned  it  on  the  factory.  Then  the  sound 
became  a  clatter  and,  looking  through  the  ranks  of 
soldiers,  Luke  saw,  far  ahead,  a  tangle  of  rearing 
horses  and  falling  men :  even  City  Hall  had  been  un 
able  longer  to  hold  its  hand;  one  of  the  patrolmen 
who  had  fled  to  the  factory  must  have  telephoned  a 
final  word  to  headquarters ;  the  mounted  police  were 
charging  the  crowd;  the  riot  was  ended. 

§11.  Luke  ran  up  the  stairs  to  the  upper  office  and 
found  the  door  unbolted.  He  did  not  know  what  he 
went  for.  He  was  not  glad  that  the  riot  was  ended; 
he  was  raging  like  a  man-eating  tiger  foiled  of  its 
quarry. 

Betty  stood  at  the  window  in  the  full  light  of  the 
street-lamp.  He  scarcely  knew  her  face.  He  had 
never  seen  her  look  like  this.  He  had  never  dreamed 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  387 

that  she  could  look  like  this.  Her  hat  had  fallen  to 
the  floor;  her  golden  hair  tossed  above  her  head  like 
licking  tongues  of  flame;  her  eyes  were  bright  coals; 
her  cheeks  were  scarlet;  her  white  upper  teeth  bit  deep 
into  the  vermilion  of  her  lower  lip.  As  if  to  give 
freer  play  to  a  breast  that  panted,  she  had  torn  open 
her  dress  at  the  base  of  her  splendid  throat.  The 
revolver  was  in  her  hand.  It  was  cocked  and  smok 
ing.  She  looked  like  Bellona  invoked  and  material 
ized  from  the  fire  and  smoke  of  that  roaring  inferno 
of  the  street. 

"  How  many?  "  she  gasped.  "  How  many  have 
we  killed?" 

Luke  stopped  at  the  door.  He  knew  now  that  he 
had  indeed  heard  shots  from  overhead.  He  knew 
that  the  same  primaeval  passion  which  had  made  him 
a  tiger — and  still  maintained  its  sway — had  worked 
this  metamorphosis  also,  had  changed  this  gentle  girl 
into  what  he  saw.  At  another  time,  in  another  mood, 
he  would  have  loathed  it;  but  in  his  present  mood  he 
gloried  in  it.  He  thought  that  he  had  never  seen  her 
so  beautiful  or  imagined  her  so  splendid;  her  madness 
matched  his  own. 

He  came  toward  her,  circling  the  table  that  stood 
between  them. 

"  None !  "  he  cried.  "  That  fool  Captain  told  the 
men  to  shoot  high." 


388  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

He  put  out  his  arms.  He  wrenched  her  to  him. 
His  right  arm  clutched  her  about  the  supple  shoul 
ders,  the  fingers  of  his  right  hand  sinking  into  her 
firm  left  breast.  With  his  left  hand  he  shoved  her 
face  upwards.  Brown  from  the  caked  blood  of  the 
man  he  had  bitten,  his  opened  mouth  closed  upon 
hers. 

He  heard  the  revolver  clatter  to  the  floor.  She 
writhed  in  his  embrace.  He  had  expected  the  perfect 
response.  Meeting  an  abrupt  refusal,  he  was  taken 
off  his  guard,  and  she  escaped  from  him. 

She  staggered  into  a  corner.  The  devil  that  pos 
sessed  him  had  lost  its  power  over  her.  She  had 
reverted  to  her  natural  being.  She  did  not  cry,  but 
she  stood  there  with  her  hands  pressed  tight  against 
her  breast,  the  fingers  mechanically  busied  with  re 
pairing  the  opened  blouse,  her  face  all  horror  at  the 
thing  she  had  been. 

"  What  must  you  think  of  me?  "  she  was  moaning 
— "  I  don't  know  what  came  over  me ! — What  must 
you  think  of  me?  " 

He  thought  nothing.  He  could  think  nothing. 
He  could  realize  only  that  he  was  again  to  be  robbed. 
Twice  to-night  the  cheat  that  played  with  men  at  the 
game  of  life  had  given  him  the  winning  hand,  only  to 
sweep  the  stakes  from  the  board  just  as  Luke  reached 
for  what  he  had  won.  The  blood-lust  changed  its 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  389 

form;  it  assumed  an  ungovernable  fury.  Something 
crackled  in  his  brain  as  he  had  seen  imperfect  feed- 
wires  at  the  touch  of  a  trolley-wheel.  The  crimson 
veil  fluttered  again  before  his  eyes. 

He  turned  and  bolted  the  door.  He  turned  again 
and  ran  to  her.  His  face  was  wet  with  sweat,  black 
with  powder,  terrible. 

She  understood.  She  lowered  her  head  and  tried 
to  dodge  past  him.  She  cried  out. 

His  strong  fingers  caught  her  hair.  The  hair 
streamed  down.  Her  forward  lurch  brought  it  taut. 
He  jerked  at  it;  she  fell  toward  him.  His  free  hand 
caught  her  throat  and  stopped  her  fall.  He  tossed 
her  against  the  table ;  her  feet  brushed  the  floor,  but 
he  pressed  her  shoulders  tight  to  the  table's  top. 
He  bent  over  her,  one  hand  at  her  throat,  the  other 
raised  to  stop  her  mouth,  his  beating  breath  on  her 
face. 

She  was  wholly  in  his  power  now.  The  outside 
world  was  impotent  because  the  outside  world  could 
not  have  heeded  her  appeal;  the  woman  herself  was 
helpless  because  her  captor's  was  the  strongest  body. 
Again  came  to  Luke  the  frightful  sense  of  Power, 
again  the  dizzy  knowledge  that  he  could  do  what 
ever  he  chose. 

At  that  instant  the  madness  fell  from  him. 

A  physical  motive  there  of  course  was,  since  the 


390  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

more  intense  the  passion  the  briefer  is  its  duration; 
but  even  if  it  originated  in  the  physical,  this  reaction 
transcended  things  material  and  wheeled  about  to 
crush  them.  It  was  the  second  and  fuller  phase  of 
that  revelation  which  had  come  to  him  in  the  Sunday 
quiet  of  the  Brooklyn  streets.  Burning,  blinding, 
transfiguring,  the  Marvel  and  the  Miracle,  elemental 
and  tremendous,  returned,  and  what  they  had  once 
done  from  the  flesh  to  the  spirit,  they  now  did  from 
the  spirit  to  the  flesh.  They  returned  to  remain. 
They  completed  the  revolution,  the  new  birth. 

Luke  saw  yet  more  dazzlingly  the  glory  of  indi 
viduality,  the  holiness  of  his  humanity;  but  it  was 
as  if  scales  fell  from  his  eyes,  for  he  saw  entire. 
Here  had  been  one  of  the  false  starts  on  a  wrong 
road,  one  of  the  moments  of  relapse  that  he  had  ex 
pected.  The  individuality  was  divine;  physical  pas 
sion  was  a  splendid  thing;  but  when  the  individual's 
physical  passion  stooped  to  force  or  cunning,  what 
had  been  splendid  became  foul,  and  what  had  been 
divine  was  bestial.  Luke,  in  his  denial  of  revealed 
Religion,  was  no  longer  a  pygmy  trembling  before  a 
giant;  he  was  himself  a  giant;  but  what  he  was  in 
actuality  he  must  recognize  as  potential  in  his  fellow 
creatures.  His  mental  and  spiritual  sight  was  at 
last  adjusted  to  the  new  illumination.  He  could 
assess  moral  values,  could  determine  ethical  duties 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  391 

now.  It  remained  only  to  find  their  reason  and  de 
cipher  their  credentials.  On  Sunday  he  had  gained 
his  strength;  to-night  he  had  gained  the  knowledge 
of  how  rightly  to  use  it. 

He  ran  to  the  door  and  tore  back  the  bolt. 

"Whitaker!"  he  called. 

The  superintendent  came  cringing  from  the  main 
office,  where  he  had  cowered  through  all  the  riot. 

"  Get  two  policemen  and  have  them  see  Miss 
Forbes  safely  home." 

Betty  was  secure  now,  and  the  mill  was  safe.  He 
borrowed  a  hat  too  large  for  him,  and  put  over  his 
ragged  shirt  the  alpaca  office-coat  of  some  clerk, 
which  he  found  in  a  locker.  He  walked  out  into  the 
street.  Far  away  he  heard  a  woman's  strident  voice 
singing : 

"  Oh,  why  don't  you  save 

All  the  money  you  earn? 
If  I  did  not  eat 
I'd  have  money  to  burn" 

There  was  the  sound  of  a  distant  shot. 
Then  silence. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

§  i.  He  could  not  stay  in  the  factory  while  she 
was  there.  To  go  to  the  upper  office  where  he  had 
left  her,  to  attempt  to  explain,  to  offer  a  shoddy 
apology — this  would  be  to  add  the  last  insult  to  the 
wrong  that  he  had  done  her.  He  thought  that  worse 
than  to  have  completed  the  thing  that  he  had 
begun. 

He  cut  northwestward  toward  the  more  peopled 
part  of  the  borough,  not  because  he  wanted  to  be 
among  people,  but  because  he  did  not  even  yet  want 
to  have  to  think.  He  tried  to  think,  but  he  did  not 
want  to.  He  saw  clearly  his  new  duties  and  his  new 
restrictions;  but  they  presented  themselves  to  him  as 
isolated  facts  which,  offending  his  reason,  spurred 
his  reason  to  demand  their  credentials,  and  these  he 
could  not  yet  read.  Moreover,  the  memory  of  the 
scene  with  Betty  would  rise  before  his  restless  mind, 
burning  all  else  away,  and,  to  burn  memory  away, 
his  heart  drove  him  into  the  more  crowded  streets. 

Women  of  the  streets  accosted  him.  He  passed  a 
house  from  a  window  on  the  ground-floor  of  which 
two  girls  with  painted  faces  beckoned.  He  passed 

392 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  393 

brightly  lighted  saloons  that  sent  into  the  street  in 
viting  streams  of  light  and  the  lure  of  clinking  glass-es 
and  laughter.  In  a  jostling  thoroughfare  he  noticed 
that  passersby  were  looking  strangely  at  him  and, 
recollecting  what  a  queer  picture  his  disordered 
clothes  and  bloody  face  must  present,  he  blamed  him 
self  for  not  repairing  the  damages  of  the  fight  before 
setting  out.  He  turned  again  into  the  less  frequented 
quarters. 

Here  he  looked  at  his  watch,  but  his  watch  had 
stopped  at  half-past  seven,  the  moment,  probably,  of 
his  charge  to  Betty's  rescue.  Seeing  the  lighted  win 
dow  of  a  jeweler's  shop  near  by,  he  went  to  it  and 
looked  at  the  clock  displayed  there.  It  was  nine 
o'clock.  As  he  could  not  have  been  walking  for  more 
than  an  hour,  and  as  the  active  rioting  must  have  be 
gun  no  later  than  seven-fifteen,  all  the  events  of  the 
riot  must  have  been  massed  within  forty-five  minutes. 

He  turned  back  toward  the  factory.  He  hated 
these  city  thoroughfares.  His  boyish  dreams  of  the 
open  road  and  the  tramping  carpenter  returned  to 
him.  .  .  . 

If  he  could  only  read  his  credentials.     .    .     . 

§  2.  When  Luke  entered  the  office  on  the  ground 
floor,  the  little  militia  captain  was  there.  He  had 
come  for  whiskey  and  finished  the  bottle.  He  was 


394  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

quite  drunk,  and  evinced  a  thick  but  facile  desire  to 
describe  the  victory  that  his  troops  had  won. 

"  Oh,  go  away !  "  said  Luke. 

He  turned  Facciolati  out. 

Breil  came  next,  and  some  of  the  policemen,  the 
former  anxious  to  report  the  present  condition  of  the 
mill,  the  latter  that  of  the  streets;  but  to  these  men 
Luke  was  scarcely  more  civil  than  he  had  been  to  the 
Italian.  Whether  he  liked  it  or  not,  he  must  think 
things  out. 

;<  There's  no  reason  for  you  to  stay  any  longer,  if 
you  don't  want  to,"  said  Breil. 

Luke  looked  at  him  vacantly. 

"  I  do  want  to,"  he  said. 

One  of  the  policemen  glanced  significantly  at  the 
empty  whiskey-bottle  and  smiled. 

"  I  have  some  things  to  think  about,"  said  Luke. 
"  I'll  go  up  to  the  office  over  this.  Tell  the  fellows  I 
don't  want  anybody  to  butt  in,  Breil." 

He  decided  that  it  would  be  well  for  him  to  do  his 
thinking  in  the  room  in  which  he  had  so  nearly  done 
Betty  what  she  must  consider  the  ultimate  wrong. 
He  went  there. 

§  3.  He  closed,  but  did  not  lock  the  door;  he 
trusted  to  his  orders  against  intrusion. 

The  street-lamp  furnished  the  room  with  sufficient 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  395 

illumination.  Luke  saw  that  one  of  the  chairs  had 
been  overturned  and  lay  close  beside  the  table.  He 
must  have  overturned  it  while  struggling  with  Betty, 
but,  so  far  as  he  could  recollect — and  his  mind  for 
some  time  employed  itself  with  such  trifles — he  had 
not  remarked  the  fall  at  the  moment  of  its  occurrence. 

He  went  to  the  broken  window  and  lounged  there, 
now  looking  out  upon  the  scene  of  the  street-battle, 
now  back  at  the  scene  of  the  essentially  similar  combat 
that  had  been  fought  inside.  It  was  astonishing  how 
little  he  remembered  of  the  details  of  either,  but  per 
haps  the  reason  for  that  was  to  be  found  in  the  size 
of  their  results. 

Something  glittered  in  the  lamplight  on  the  floor  at 
his  feet.  He  stooped  and  picked  it  up;  it  was  one  of 
those  yellow  wire  hairpins  that  Betty  used  to  supple 
ment  the  pins  of  tortoiseshell.  Down  in  the  street 
he  saw  a  draggled  necktie  that  had  been  torn  from  the 
throat  of  some  striker.  His  gaze  wandered  from  one 
object  to  the  other  and  back  again. 

He  stood  there  for  a  long  time.     .    .    . 

He  was  beginning  to  find  out  at  last  the  logic  that 
he  had  sought. 

Betty  was  lost  to  him,  and  if  she  were  not  lost  he 
must  give  her  up.  All  that  was  vital  in  what  he  had 
all  along  felt  for  her  was  only  one  of  the  forces  that 
go  to  make  up  complete  love — right  enough,  he  told 


396  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

himself,  when  combined  with  its  fellow  elements; 
right  enough  upon  occasion  when  frankly  acknowl 
edged  between  a  free  woman  and  a  free  man ;  but,  he 
determined,  disastrously  insufficient  to  be  made  the 
sole  element  of  anything  more  than  the  briefest  union 
between  two  individuals,  and  criminal  when  it  was  the 
only  motive  of  but  one  of  the  individuals  in  any  union. 
About  what  Betty  had  felt  for  him  he  was  equally 
clear;  it  was  another  of  the  forces  that  compose  real 
love;  it  was  the  element  of  Romance,  just  as  insuffi 
cient  and  just  as  wrong,  when  it  was  alone,  or  when  it 
existed  on  the  one  side  only,  as  was  the  merely  physi 
cal.  Real  love  was  the  fusion  of  the  physical,  the  ro 
mantic,  the  spiritual  and  the  comradely,  the  fusion  of 
two  people  for  whom  there  was  but  one  means  of 
salvation.  He  knew  now,  beyond  all  questioning, 
that,  however  they  had  deceived  themselves,  Betty's 
thoughts  and  his,  her  hopes  and  his,  her  aims  and  his, 
her  work  and  his,  were  and  had  always  been  divided 
beyond  the  possibility  of  junction.  No  marriage 
service  that  might  have  been  performed  between 
them  could  have  married  but  the  least  of  their  outly 
ing  selves.  Not  Church  and  State  together  could 
have  joined  their  true  selves  that,  living  where 
there  was  no  church  and  no  state,  had  yet  no  natural 
relationship  to  each  other.  Some  day  real  love  might 
come  to  him;  some  day  it  would  surely  come  to  Betty. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  397 

To-day,  though  it  tore  his  heart,  though  it  was  as  if 
he  were  ripping  the  heart  out  of  his  breast,  he  must, 
for  Betty's  sake — since  she  was  the  weaker — even 
more  than  for  his  own,  tear  her  out  of  his  life.  His 
desire  for  her  would  long  remain ;  the  moments  would 
be  full  of  her  when  he  sank  from  waking  into  sleep, 
or  climbed  from  sleep  to  waking;  but  though  he  might 
regain  the  power  to  enslave  her  soul  and  make  a  serv 
ant  of  the  self  of  which  he  could  not  make  a  work- 
fellow,  to  use  that  power  would  be  to  sin  against 
what  was  best  in  her.  He  must  not  see  her  again, 
even  were  she  willing  to  see  him,  and  he  must  leave 
her  thinking  the  worst  of  him  in  order  that  she  might 
the  sooner  want  to  forget  him. 

He  tossed  the  gilt  pin  out  of  the  window.  Fol 
lowing  its  flight,  his  glance  came  again  to  the  work 
er's  necktie,  lying  in  the  street. 

What  right  had  he  over  the  man  who  had  worn 
that?  What  right  that  he  did  not  have  over 
Betty? 

His  reason  answered :  None. 

There,  he  tremendously  realized,  was  the  key  to 
his  credentials.  He  leaned  heavily  against  the  win 
dow-sill.  He  understood.  It  was  a  bitter  lesson,  but 
he  learned  it,  there  and  then. 

What  he  had  done  to  these  men  was  what  he  had 
tried  to  do  to  Betty,  not  in  the  riot  only,  but  in  ac- 


398  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

cepting  the  position  that  society  had  offered  him  in 
relation  to  them ;  it  was  what  every  employer,  from 
the  actual  boss  to  the  smallest  shareholder,  every 
where  was  doing.  It  was  living  upon  the  work  of 
others,  profiting  by  values  for  the  creation  of  which 
the  pay  had  to  be  low  enough  to  permit  of  profit.  It 
was  compulsion.  If  he  sold  dear  what  he  bought 
cheap,  what  was  it  that  he  bought  cheap  but  their 
labor?  If  he  wanted  pay  for  executive  ability,  what 
executive  ability  did  he,  or  any  shareholder  in  any 
company,  exercise?  If  he  claimed  a  return  for  the 
risk  of  his  investment,  what  return  did  these  men  get, 
who  invested  that  labor-power  which  was  their  whole 
capital  ?  If  any  stockbuyer  talked  of  profits  as  the  re 
ward  of  previous  years  of  saving,  how  could  he  ex 
plain  the  fact  that  his  savings  would  secure  no  profit 
until  they  employed  labor  to  produce  it?  He  had 
been  fighting  against  his  own  ideals.  It  was  the 
workers  that  had  been  right  and  he  that  had  been 
wrong.  What  the  man  in  russet  brown  had  been  to 
him,  that  he  and  all  who  directly  or  indirectly  em 
ployed  labor  for  profit,  had  been  and  were  to  the 
employed. 

So,  quite  as  suddenly  as  he  had  come  to  see  life  in 
the  new  light,  he  came  now,  in  the  little  office  of  the 
lonely  factory,  to  see  the  reason  from  which  the  light 
proceeded;  there  was  only  one  evil  in  the  world  and 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  399 

that  was  Compulsion;  only  one  good,  and  that  was 
power  over  one's  self. 

The  awful  thing,  he  said  to  himself  as  one  who 
reads  what  is  written,  was  not  to  have  too  little  power 
over  others;  it  was  to  have  too  much.  To  have  the 
means  of  oppression  was  to  go  mad  and  use  them;  it 
was  to  confuse  the  means  with  the  right.  Too  much 
power  over  others  and  too  little  over  himself,  both 
states  a  result  of  a  system  based  upon  compulsion, 
had  made  the  man  in  russet  brown  all  that  the  man  in 
russet  brown  had  been ;  it  made  Luke  a  potential  mur 
derer  and  ravisher.  He  saw  all  life  as  endlessly  cre 
ating  and  no  two  hours  the  same.  Seeing  this,  he 
understood  why  it  was  that,  when  authority  was  laid 
upon  any  one,  that  one  rebelled  in  proportion  to  his 
vitality.  He  saw  the  present  wrong  and  the  future 
impotence  of  churches  and  laws,  of  politics,  govern 
ments,  and  property.  To  believe  in  any  one  of  them, 
to  traffic  with  any  of  them,  was  now  to  exercise  com 
pulsion  over  his  fellows  and  now  to  delegate  to  his 
fellows  his  power  over  himself. 

He  must  give  up  everything  that  was  easy  and  com 
fortable — the  easy  thought  and  faith  as  freely  as  the 
easy  food  and  lodging.  He  must  join  the  op 
pressed. 

He  leaned  through  the  battered  window  and  filled 
his  lungs  with  the  pure  night  air.  He  looked  up  to 


400  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

the  patch  of  heaven  overhead  where  a  yellow  moon 
was  riding. 

"  I  haven't  let  their  corruption  destroy  my  pur 
pose,"  he  said  to  the  moon.  "  I've  simply  put  myself 
where  they  can't  destroy  me.  I've  put  myself  where 
they  can't  lie  to  me  again.  I'll  fight  them  as  one  man 
against  the  world;  I'll  lose,  but  I  won't  be  using  their 
weapons;  I  won't  be  what  they  are,  and  I'll  lose  as  a 
free  man.  So  far  as  the  world  inside  of  me's  con 
cerned,  they  invaded  it  and  bossed  it.  I've  chucked 
them  out  of  it,  and  I've  destroyed  them!  " 

It  seemed  wonderfully  simple  now  and  wonderfully 
peaceful.  He  would  go  to  Forbes  to-morrow  and 
draw  up  a  legal  paper,  the  last  legal  paper  he  would 
ever  put  his  name  to,  his  last  compromise,  turning 
over  his  interest  in  this  factory  to  his  mother;  and 
Forbes — poor  old  Forbes !  He  was  sorry  for  Forbes, 
but  he  knew  what  would  happen;  left  alone,  Forbes 
would  end  by  selling  out,  profitably,  to  the  trust.  And 
then  for  Luke  the  open  road,  the  old  open  road 
that  he  had  always  loved,  the  learning  of  a  manual 
trade,  the  sale  of  his  labor-power  no  more  than  was 
necessary  to  keep  him  alive  and  free  to  go  wherever 
slaves  fought  the  system  of  corruption  for  their 
liberty,  until  sometime,  when  the  soldiers  would 
have  Luke  before  them  instead  of  behind  them,  and 
did  not  shoot  over  the  heads  of  the  mob.  He  was 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  401 

tasting  of  contentment  for  the  first  time  in  his  life. 
He  was  glad  that  he  had  not  died  out  there  in  the 
riot.  There  was  so  much  to  do.  There  was  so  much 
to  do  in  this  life  that  he  did  not  see  how  he  had 
ever  had  time  to  think  of  any  other.  And  now  he 
was  about  to  do  his  part  of  it  conscientiously,  with 
open  eyes  and  with  all  his  soul,  and  to  do  it  with 
complete  power  over  himself,  using  no  compulsion 
upon  others  and  allowing  no  other  to  use  compul 
sion  upon  him.  Luke  had  conquered.  For  every 
soul  there  is,  somewhere,  a  separate  road  to  salva 
tion.  Luke  had  found  his  own.  .  .  . 

Somewhere  out  in  the  city  a  clock  struck  eleven. 
He  knew  that  he  had  been  standing  at  the  window 
for  a  long  time,  but  he  had  no  idea  it  was  so  long  as 
this.  If  he  had  been  so  engrossed,  what,  he  won 
dered,  had  finally  roused  him.  He  remembered:  it 
was  something  about  the  door.  He  had  not  heard 
it  move;  he  merely  thought  that  it  was  moving.  He 
turned  to  it,  but  it  did  not  move.  Perhaps  a  draught 
of  air  had  deceived  him. 

The  factory  was  very  quiet.    .    .    . 

§  4.  "  Don't  open  your  trap !  I  got  you  covered ! 
If  you  let  out  one  yip,  I'll  croak  you." 

The  door  had  opened  and  closed,  letting  in  a  figure 
that  quickly  bolted  it  and  then  discreetly  avoided  the 


402  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

light  from  the  window.  Luke  saw  a  dim  form  in  the 
shadow.  All  that  projected  into  the  shaft  of  light 
was  a  fist  tightly  clenched  about  a  leveled  revolver. 

"  What  do  you  want?"  asked  Luke. 

He  was  not  afraid  to  disregard  this  intruder's 
command  to  silence.  He  was  curiously  fearless.  He 
supposed  that  this  unseen  man  was  some  fanatic 
from  the  mob.  Anybody  could  have  slipped  into 
the  factory  through  the  door  that  Luke  had  left 
open  when  the  terror  of  the  soldiers'  fire  swept  the 
street  and  the  smoke  of  it  clouded  the  doorway. 
This  was  an  avenger  thus  arrived.  Luke  felt  the  pres 
ence  of  a  certain  crude  justice.  He  had  deserved  this. 

"  Don't  worry;  I'm  not  going  to  yell,"  he  said. 

He  was  expecting  death  now,  expecting  absolute 
extinction;  but  he  faced  it  with  a  serenity  that  mildly 
surprised  him.  This  was  not  the  mad  courage,  too 
sudden  to  be  fine,  which  had  hurled  him  into  the 
crater  of  the  riot  to  rescue  Betty.  It  was  a  courage 
that  weighed  results.  He  thought  of  the  dusty,  open 
road.  He  was  rather  sorry  to  have  to  miss  that,  but 
no  doubt  he  would  never  have  got  it  anyhow. 

"  Well,"  he  said  with  a  faint  touch  of  impatience, 
"  why  don't  you  answer  my  question  ?  What  do  you 
want?" 

The  barrel  of  the  revolver  wavered  ever  so 
slightly. 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  403 

The  intruder's  voice  came  again  out  of  the  dark 
ness;  it  was  as  if  the  darkness  itself  made  answer: 

"  I  want  them  letters." 

Luke's  teeth  came  together  with  a  snap.  He  had 
been  carrying  the  letters  in  a  money-belt  about  his 
middle,  next  his  body.  It  was  hours  since  he  had 
thought  of  them.  He  had  just  now  been  feeling  that 
perhaps  he  ought  to  be  shot,  but  this  feeling  had  no 
origin  in  the  affair  of  the  letters.  They  were  a  differ 
ent  matter.  For  the  letters  he  had  fought  so  much 
and  so  fairly  that  he  was  ready  and  willing  to  fight 
for  them  once  more.  He  tried  to  gain  time. 

"What  letters?"  he  asked. 

"  I  dunno,"  said  the  darkness.  "  But  you  do. 
Come  on,  now;  don't  try  to  flimflam  me:  them  letters 
you  got  in  your  coat." 

Luke  glanced  at  the  alpaca  coat  that  he  had  put  on 
when  he  last  left  the  factory. 

"  If  you  want  anything  that  was  in  my  coat,  you'll 
have  to  look  in  the  street  for  it:  I  left  it  there." 

The  intruder  did  not  at  once  reply.  Luke  saw  the 
revolver  advance  toward  him  in  the  light.  It  was 
followed  by  a  thick,  short  arm,  and  the  arm  was 
followed  by  a  short  thick  man.  He  wore  a  velours 
Alpine  hat.  It  was  pushed  to  one  side  of  his  head, 
and  Luke  saw  that  the  hair  below  it  was  red. 

That  was  almost  the  last  thing  he  did  see  before 


404  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

the  shot  was  fired.  Luke  made  a  flying  leap  at  the 
red-headed  man  and  tried  to  knock  the  revolver  into 
the  air.  As  he  did  so,  the  revolver  spat  at  him. 

A  loud  report.    A  darting  arrow  of  flame. 

Luke  lay  on  the  office  floor.  The  red-headed 
man's  skilled  fingers  ran  deftly  through  his  clothes. 
Then  the  killer  raised  the  shattered  window  and 
dropped  into  the  street. 

§  5.  One  of  Breil's  strike-breakers,  making  his 
round  of  the  factory,  heard  the  shot  and  came  run 
ning  toward  the  noise.  He  ran  to  the  upper  office 
and  burst  into  the  room. 

A  curling  cloud  of  lazy  smoke  was  weaving  grace 
ful  figures  in  the  shaft  of  light  from  the  street-lamp 
outside;  it  embraced  an  overturned  chair,  and  circled 
the  top  of  the  center  table.  Above  it  the  strike 
breaker  saw  the  upper  half  of  a  disheveled  figure, 
the  figure  of  Luke  Huber,  leaning  out  of  the  window 
and  shaking  its  fist  at  all  the  city  round  about.  In 
a  high,  cracked  voice,  Luke  was  yelling  curses  at  the 
world. 

"  God  damn  your  system  and  your  politics!" 
yelled  he.  "  God  damn  your  law  and  your  govern 
ment!  God  damn  your  god!  " 

He  turned  toward  the  noise  behind  him  and 
showed  himself  with  matted  hair  and  staring  eyes, 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  405 

with  a  cut  in  his  forehead  and  a  white  face  that  had 
brown  stains  about  its  lolling  mouth,  with  a  slowly 
broadening  patch  of  blood  in  his  torn  shirt. 

"  Mr.  Huber!"  gasped  the  strike-breaker.  He 
ran  forward. 

As  he  did  so,  Huberts  voice  howled  into  shattered 
song : 

"Hallelujah,  I'm  a  bum— bum! 
Hallelujah,  I'm  a " 

He  lurched  forward  into  the  strike-breaker's  arms. 
Before  those  arms  closed  about  him,  he  was  dead. 


CHAPTER  XX 

On  the  twentieth  floor  of  a  Wall  Street  skyscraper, 
in  that  office  where  the  engraving  of  George  Wash 
ington  hung  between  the  windows,  three  men  sat  in 
the  mid-morning  light,  about  the  mahogany  table. 
They  were  talking  business.  Each  man  had  his  own 
offices  and  his  own  businesses,  but  they  frequently  and 
quietly  met  in  this  one  because  most  of  the  businesses 
of  each  were  closely  allied  with  the  business-interests 
of  all. 

There  was  nothing  unusual  about  the  outward  ap 
pearance  or  public  actions  of  this  trio ;  they  were  ap 
parently  but  three  units  of  the  legion  that  makes  this 
portion  of  New  York  a  city  by  day  and  a  desert  by 
night.  Each  had  come  down  town  in  his  own  motor 
that  morning,  defying  speed-laws  and  traffic  regula 
tions,  just  as  scores  of  his  business  neighbors  had 
done.  Each  had  descended  at  his  own  offices,  passed 
through  half  a  dozen  doors  guarded  by  six  bowing 
attendants,  and  proceeded  to  his  own  desk  in  his 
own  private  room,  precisely  as  a  small  army  of  other 
business  men  were  doing  at  the  same  time  within  a 
radius  of  half  a  mile.  Each  looked  like  the  rest  of 

406 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  407 

that  army.  All  three  were  men  of  about  the  average 
height,  not  noticeably  either  above  or  below  it,  and 
two  were  inclined  to  bulkiness.  Those  two  had  pale 
faces  and  close  mouths  and  steady  eyes,  which  looked 
out  from  under  bushy  brows  with  glances  that  gave 
the  lie  to  the  lethargic  indications  of  the  little 
pouches  of  lax  skin  below  their  lower  lids.  They 
wore  flowers  in  the  lapels  of  their  coats;  one  wore  a 
white  waistcoat;  the  cropped  mustache  of  one  was 
black;  that  of  the  other  was  touched  with  grey. 
Hallett  chewed  leisurely  at  the  end  of  an  unlighted 
cigar;  Rivington's  slim  hand  stroked  his  mustache 
with  a  contemplative  movement. 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  was  almost  of 
the  age  of  the  man  that  used  to  sit  there,  but  he  was 
somewhat  shorter,  and  he  was  thin.  His  clothes  fell 
loosely  about  his  bony  frame.  His  eyes  were  nar 
row.  He  sat  before  a  neat  pile  of  memoranda,  with 
his  thin  hands,  the  blue  veins  of  which  marked  them 
like  a  map,  tapping  upon  the  surface  of  the  table. 
Like  his  predecessor's,  his  elbows  were  raised  at  right 
angles  to  his  torso  and  pointed  ceilingward;  his 
chest  heaved  visibly,  but  his  breathing  was  inaudible. 
His  eyes  were  everywhere. 

He  had  come  to  his  office  betimes  that  morning. 
He  had  read  his  letters,  directed  his  charities,  in 
structed  his  brokers,  given  his  orders  to  lieutenants 


4o8  THE  SPIDER'S  WEB 

at  the  state  capitals  and  to  such  lieutenants  at  tHe 
national  capital  as  needed  them.  Now  he  was  re 
ceiving  his  fellow  commanders  in  council. 

"McKay?"  he  said  in  thin  comment  on  some 
remark  of  Rivington.  "What  McKay?" 

"  Henry,"  said  Rivington.  "  Dohan's  successor 
in  the  M.  &  N.  He's  the  sort  of  man " 

"  We  can  unload  this  stock,"  said  Hallett,  "  any 
time  now." 

Rivington  began  a  question. 

"  It's  all  right,"  nodded  Hallett.  u  And  by  the 
way,  that  little  Forbes  concern's  come  into  the  com 
bine." 

"I  know,"  said  Rivington;  "but  those  letters — 
You  remember " 

"  Stein  sent  'em  over  to  me  yesterday  morning. 
We'll  burn  'em  this  time." 

The  man  at  the  head  of  the  table  rapped  with  his 
spatulate  finger-ends. 

"  We  are  too  busy  to  bother  with  trifles,"  he 
said.  "  I've  got  here  " — he  indicated  the  memo 
randa — "  all  the  reports  on  the  proposed  food 
stuffs  monopoly.  I  must  decide  on  that  right 
away.  .  .  ." 

After  a  momentary  silence,  the  stock-ticker,  with 
metallic  insistence,  went  on  weaving  out  its  yards  of 


THE  SPIDER'S  WEB  409 

tape  beside  the  windows  that  looked  down  to  the 
web  of  radiating  streets,  on  which  minute  black  ob 
jects  that  were  men  and  women  bobbed  and  buzzed 
like  entangled  flies.  .  .  •.. 


(THE  END 


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THE  WHIP,  by  Richard  Parker 

Novelized  from  Cecil  Raleigh's  great  Drury  Lane  melodrama  of  the 

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BEAUTIFULLY  ILLUSTRATED  WITH  PICTURES  FROM  THE  PLAY 

This  big  love  story  of  English  sporting  society  is  crammed  full 
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ROMANCE,  by  Acton  Davies 

The  World's  Greatest  Love  Story 
Based  on  Edward  Sheldon's  Play  Fully  Illustrated 

Filled  to  overflowing  with  the  emotional  glamor  of  love,  "Romance" 
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profound  and  sincere  love.  In  the  hour  of  trial  the  woman  rises  to 
sublime  heights  of  self-denial. 

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SIMPLY  WOMEN,  by  Marcel  Prevost 

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This  startling  anonymous  work  of  a  well-known  English  novelist  is 
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THE  DANGEROUS  AGE,  by  Karin  Michaelis 

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MY  ACTOR  HUSBAND,  Anonymous 

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DOWNWARD:  "A  Slice  of  Life,"  by  Maud  Churton  Braby 

AUTHOR  OP  "MODERN  MARRIAGE  AND  How  TO  BEAR  IT." 
"  'Downward'  belongs  to   that  great  modern  school   of  fiction   built 
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TWO  APACHES  OF  PARIS,  by  Alice  and  Claude  Askew 

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BEYOND  THE  ROCKS,  by  Elinor  Glyn 

"One  of  Mrs.  Glyn's  highly  sensational  a-nd  somewhat  erotic 
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The  scenes  are  laid  in  Paris  and  London;  and  a  country-house 
party  also  figures,  affording  the  author  some  daring  situations,  which 
she  has  handled  deftly. 

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The  story  of  the  awakening  of  a  young  girl,  whose  maidenly 
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"Gratitude  and,  power  and  self-controlj  *  *  in  nature  I  find 
there  is  a  stronger  force  than  all  these  things,  and  that  is  the  touch 
of  the  one  we  love." — Ambrosine. 

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THE  VICISSITUDES  OF  EVANGELINE,  by  Elinor  Glyn 

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Evangeline  is  a  delightful  heroine  with  glorious  red  hair  and  amaz 
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DAYBREAK  :  a  Prologue  to  "Three  Weeks" 

"Daybreak"  is  a  prologue  to  "Three  Weeks"  and  forms  the  first 
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"There  is  a  note  of  sincerity  in  this  book  that  is  lacking  in  the 
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"One  Day"  is  the  sequel  you  have  been  waiting  for  since  reading 
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A  Modern  Romeo  and  Juliet 

A  P9werful,  stirring  love-story  of  twenty  years  after.  Abounding 
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and  enjoyed  "Three  Weeks." 

THE  DIARY  OF  MY  HONEYMOON 

A  woman  who  sets  out  to  unburden  her  soul  upon  intimate  things 
is  bound  to  touch  upon  happenings  which  are  seldom  the  subject  of 
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author,  the  "Diary"  is  a  work  of  throbbing  and  intense  humanity,  the 
moral  of  which  is  sound  throughout  and  plain  to  see. 

THE  INDISCRETION  OF  LADY  USHER  :  a  Sequel  to  "The 
Diary  of  My  Honeymoon" 

"Another  purpose  novel  dealing  with  the  question  of  marriage  and 
dealing  very  plainly, — one  of  the  most  interesting  among  the  many 
books  on  these  lines  which  are  at  present  attracting  so  much  atten 
tion." — Cleveland  Town  Topics. 

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SIX  WOMEN,  by  Victoria  Cross 

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PAULA,  by  Victoria  Cross 

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THE  RELIGION  OF  EVELYN  HASTINGS,  by  Victoria 
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SIX  CHAPTERS  OF  A  MAN'S  LIFE,  by  Victoria  Cross 

There   is    no    mistaking    the    earnestness    of    the    morality   which    it 
enforces. 

A  GIRL  OF  THE  KLONDIKE,  by  Victoria  Cross 

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adventure,  woven  about  a  proud,  independent,   reckless  heroine. 

THE  WOMAN  WHO  DIDN'T,  by  Victoria  Cross 

A   striking,   well-told   story,   fascinating   in    its  hold  on  the  reader. 

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Given   the   soul    of   a    maiden   waiting   for   love,   the   plot   as   it   un 
folds  shows  how   the  heroine  finds  one  worthy  of  her. 

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THE  SPIDER'S  WEB,  by  Reginald  Wright  Kauffman 

A  splendid  story,  in  every  way  equal  to  the  "House  of  Bondage," 
written  in  the  author's  best  manner. 

LITTLE  LOST  SISTER,  by  Virginia  Brooks 

Gripping,  vital,  true,  intense,  it  is  a  page  from  the  life  of  a  beauti 
ful  girl. 

SPARROWS,  by  Horace  W.  C.  Newte 

The  story  of  an  unprotected  girl,  of  which  the  reader  will  not  skip 
a  single  page. 

THE  OTHER  MAN'S  WIFE,  by  Frank  Richardson 

The   duel   of  sex  is  here,    and  it  is  described  without  bias,  as  fear 
lessly  stated  as  it  is  exquisitely  conceived. 

SALLY  BISHOP,  by  E.  Temple  Thurston 

There   have   been   few    stories   so  sweet,   so   moving,    so    tender,    so 
convincing   as   this   life-record  of   a    London   girl. 

THE  PRICE,  by  Gertie  de  S.  Wentworth-James 

Dealing    with    woman's    life    under    modern    conditions,    the    author 
writes   of   the  heights  and  the  depths   of  existence. 

DAUGHTERS  OF  THE  RICH,  by  Edgar  Saltus 

A  story  of  great  strength  and  almost  photographic  intensity,  wise, 
witty,    yet    touchingly    pathetic. 

HAGAR  REVELLY,  by  Daniel  Carson  Goodman 

A    truthful    presentation    of    the    real    reasons    why    some    girls    go 
wrong  and  others  do  not. 

UNCLOTHED,  by  Daniel  Carson  Goodman 

A  novel  for  the   woman  of  thirty,  this  book  is  an  hones*  attempt 
to  be  honest. 

LOVE'S  PILGRIMAGE,  by  Upton  Sinclair 

A  novel  which  deals  with  a  husband  and  a  wife,  which  for  efficiency 
and    truth    is    unexcelled. 

Wherever  you  bought  this  volume  you  can  purchase  any  other  of  the  Crown 
Series  at  the  same  price;  or  they  can  be  obtained  from  the  publishers. 

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